The Face of Missing

Kevin is my face of missing although his remains were found. I have the faces of two other young people indelibly printed in my memory along with Kevin's. Craig Freer who went missing from Scotia,N.Y., my home town, a couple of weeks before Kevin did and to my knowledge still remains among the missing and Suzanne Lyall who disappeared 7 years ago and still has not been found. I have looked at their pictures numerous times. I could never walk by a picture of Craig, pictures which were prominently displayed in Scotia stores and banks, etc., without stopping and looking and wondering and feeling the same pain that Mr. and Mrs. Freer feel. Suzanne's picture was in a N.Y.State income tax pamphlet. Scotia is part of the "Capital District" area which encompasses Albany, Schenectady,Troy , and many other small towns too. Suzanne is from Albany.

At times when I walk into Walmart, especially one branch I stop and look at the pictures of the missing. All of the faces and I think to myself how I would ever remember any of them if I ever ran into them. But I would remember Craig and Suzanne so perhaps that is a start. I had to put a face on the missing because it was my own child and that certainly changes things. Your life and the way you look at things and faces. And there are thousands of faces of the missing.

A Celebration of Life?

This morning on the news once again I saw an advertisement for the race for the cure. I guess there were about 16,000 people involved. This is not my first involvement with an issue that wasn't in the fore-front I guess. A cure for cancer is and should be in the forefront because of its importance and because of the numbers of people that have been touched by it.

Missing persons? I haven't had time to do research yet so I only know a little about this issue from personal experience with Kevin. I have heard that it involves 100,000 persons nationwide. Perhaps that is a small number compared to cancer, I don't know. But what I do know is that I would like the "Missing Person" issue to be more in the forefront. A celebration of all lives. Young lives that disappear. Some that are found. Others that are never found and cause of death is never determined.

The Stairs that lead to Nowhere...

I just parked on the Locust Street bridge to use the public library in Des Moines.
If one parks there the meters give much more time for less money than the meters in
the library parking lot.I looked out over the River and there were the "stairs that
lead to nowhere" as Kevin refered to them. The River is high, flooded to me, and the platforms that are visible much of the time are under water. The stairs that lead to those cement platforms along the sides of the River now lead to the water and as Kevin commented, look to lead "Nowhere". It would look kind of eerie to someone who visited the River for the first time, I would imagine. It looks eerie to me even
though I know that in due time the stairs will lead to the walkways along the lowering River once again.

My one last attempt to find Kevin's skull is going "Nowhere". I haven't heard from
the head of the divers or the dog handlers. Are they going to tell me something I
already know?

Yesterday morning I talked to the police again. At this point or at least yesterday
morning anyway I didn't try to change their opinion. Next time if I'm feeling particularly frustrated I might try again but for now I feel like I am on those
stairs that are going nowhere...