That’s all I saw when one of my Facebook posts notified me of the shooting. A Walmart in El Paso.
My son lives in El Paso. He is a manager of a Walmart. And so I froze- not knowing what to do first or even how to do it.
You see, I haven’t really spoken to my son or his family since before the election. Staunch trumpers, they cut off communication with me because I refused to stop “bashing” him. Why couldn’t I see how great he was going to make the country? I was living in a fairy tale world and had to start facing reality.
Well, reality is that when you turn on the news and see the El Paso police chief giving a news conference about the shooting, you realize he could be talking about your family.
I finally reached my granddaughter who told me everyone was safe. It was not my son’s Walmart. But she and my daughter-in-law were in another mall across town and that place was evacuated because of a ‘shooter’. “Everyone became hysterical” my granddaughter told me. “There was so much confusion. People didn’t know what to do.” (My granddaughter and I have stayed in touch, mostly through Facebook.)
And when I heard that 19 people were killed, I lost it. I grieved not only for the families of those now gone, but for the loss of the relationship I had with my son. He hasn’t called, and the number I had for him is not working. I know I’m not alone, in fact, someone on one of my Facebook groups is starting a support group for those who have lost family members to trump.
But to think all could have been taken away from me is a humbling reality. I don’t know where to go from here, but having places like this to vent is a great start.
This country has so much healing to go through. And way too many people...families have so much healing to go through. And a city- one of the safest cities in the country- will have to go through healing.
Because a white man, from Dallas, decided to shoot up a Walmart in El Paso.