family

My good NY friend Gina's younger brother Leo has been missing since December. Supposed to go to Boston for a weekend, he never showed up and later called his Dad from Ohio border. He was fine he said and was coming home. He never did unfortunately. They then put in a missing report, put notices up on myspace and posters everywhere he was seen near, searched for him, and the police were looking for him but with no luck.

His remains were sadly found this week in a forest, it looks like he been there unfound for several months in West Virgina forest far away from any hiking trails or passers by. He was only 21 and I know that his family are going through agony right now with the terrible news. Gina called me and I cant even imagine how she had the strength to make those calls to friends and family. Shes an amazing person and has held her family together after her Mums passing away when she was a teenager.

I used to tutor him in math a long time ago in Long Island. He was a funny kid age 11 then who was quick to make everyone laugh. While others suggest that finding him is a relief in a sad way as they finally know what happened, it just brings more questions, why was he there, how did he pass away and why didn't he come home. There's no simple answers and all I can think of is saying a prayer and sending my love to my friend and her family.

I didn't know if I should even blog about this. Then I thought well if a few folks who read this say some prayers for Leo and his family then it will have been worth it. Too often we can get caught up with pieces of life that make us forget whats really important. The news would like us to focus on mindless pieces of scary news like are we ready for the big earthquake or how electrical blankets can kill you ( I swear that was a whole news piece one night - how electric blankets can kill you and more about it at 11pm kind of teaser - finally later they showed a frayed blanket that even a dog wouldn't sleep on and said it was dangerous.. yeah duh!). While stories about missing people doesn't usually even make the news at all. So don't forget to tell those folks who you love that you love them and forgive those mistakes you and others made along the way. In the grand scheme of things they just aren't that important.