Letter: A Thank You to First Responders, Others

I am 3,000 miles away in Wayne NJ, and while watching MSNBC Friday afternoon they reported a shooting at the college. Out of concern for my family I called my daughter Rachel to make sure that she knew what was going on. She did not answer the phone.  

I thought that she was at work and could not take the call, she was not.
  
In a short while my phone rang and the caller ID was my daughters. Rachel called to say there had been a shooting at Virginia Park where she and my grand children were out on a multi class Edison School field trip. She said my grand son wanted to speak to me and when he came on the line, he was more mature than his 7 years would make you think.  

He said he had heard many very loud gun shots while he was playing. I asked him if he was alright and he said that he was. I asked him if he was afraid and he said yes and I told him that was okay to be that way and how was his sister? He told me she was crying, and that every one else at the park was okay too.  

My daughter came back on the line and explained how she had walked for pizza for everyone when the incident began and how she rushed back to the park to find the children from several classes had been rushed inside the buildings at the park by the teachers and staff there.  

Rachel is 7 months pregnant.  

I asked Rachel to have my grand daughter call me when she was able and later this evening I got that call. She explained how frightened she became when everyone realized this was not fire crackers, as she took cover behind a tree. And that many of the children from Edison School were also frightened and had been crying too. I explained that fear is a survival instinct and very expected, even normal.  

I asked her if she thought that what happened was going to make her a stronger person and she quoted the song lyrics 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger', this from a 10 year old mind you? I asked about her brother now that they were home and she said he was playing videos, can you imagine?  

I asked her what she was doing and she said writing in her journal about what had happened, and there was something very right about these two children moving through a very bad day to deal with the aftershock, each in their own way, and I am so sorry that there are other family members friends and loved ones who will not experience the same emotions as we are.  

I want to thank the teachers of Edison and the staff at Virginia Park who were there today when I could not be.  

I want to thank a bus driver who had the presence of mind to get her passengers to safety as the bullets flew.  

I want to thank all the local, state and federal Police , Fire, and EMT's, who turned immediately to action as the events unfolded quickly when the totality of the danger was still unclear to them.  

Stewart Resmer
New Jersey