Years ago when I was interning at the old Z97.3 (which would later become the powerhouse EZRock) I worked in the newsroom with the late Brian Henderson, an old radio sort who knew how to write a story. One day a news story came into the newsroom that he asked me to write. The story was about a 7 year old girl going missing after playing in the playground by the apartment building where she lived. I remember I wrote a story that went like this Missing. A right pink shoe, blue jeans, a blue sweater and a 7 year old girl. Henderson loved the story and ran with it - even though he did give me a lesson in radio news writing first by changing 7 year old girl to a little tot only 7 years of age. I forgot the girls name that went missing that would later be found dead in the basement of the building where she lived, but I remember it didn't really strike me as being odd. Or scary. I was younger. I was her age just a decade before, and still. Nothing. No fright. Nothing. That feeling continued over the years as kids went missing and found dead. I felt for the family. I mourned their loss. I wished that the people who committed these crimes would rot in hell, but other than that, nothing. It had no real personal attachment to me.
Until now.
When I heard the tragic end to the search for tiny Tori Stafford, I just froze. Again, I repeated the same feelings and thoughts I had years before about kids coming up dead, but this time it hit way too close to home.
I'm an uncle, now. I don't know what I would do if this happened to my two nieces or my nephew.
I came up in a very overprotective family. I couldn't even take the subway till I was in my late teens. I hated it. I thought I would've grown more as an individual if I were able to explore more as a person if I didn't have that leash on me until such a late age. I promised myself that I would never be like that to my nieces or my nephews or even my own kids. But it seems like it's different now. I guess it all changes when you have them. Kids.
I still feel like I will be that cool uncle every teenager wishes for when the three tykes get of age, however right now, I don't know how I would let them out of my sight for one second. I don't know how I would live if I knew I was responsible for them going missing.
The hatred I have against the two arrested is even more greater then years before when I heard similar news. Just imagining they did that to my two nieces or nephew. I don't know what I would do. I don't know what I would do to them.
It's way too soon to say anything on the case as it's less than a day since the arrests were made. It's too soon to come to conclusions. However, I do know one thing.
Next time I see Jazz, Nate and Izzy I'm going to hold them a bit closer and never let go.
