Shooting Death In Bellows Falls Brings To Mind

[Henry]

I think that when we hear of a tragic accidental death of a young person, we all remember someone earlier in our lives.  When I heard about the young man shooting himself accidentally in Bellows Falls, I thought back to when I was a kid in Fairfield and Percy Corey had two boys.  One of the boys named Lyndon was the same age as I was.  He and his older brother were doing something with their father's gun and Lyndon accidentally shot his older brother and killed him.  It is now many years later and I still remember it as I am sure many of you can remember similar circumstances.

Back in those days teachers didn't have the methods they have today to help students go through the grieving process.  I am not familiar actually with what they do, but think one of the things is expressing themselves on paper.  Back when "Brother" Parker was killed in an accident just below the McNall Farm on Route 104, I remember a huge crowd of young people gathering in the center of the village where Foothills Bakery is now, just standing there.  "Brother" or "Eddie" used to sit on the steps there by the hour when he was alive and I guess perhaps this might have been their way of communicating with him after death.

When I was going around to cemeteries looking for genealogy information, I used to run across some strange things like 4 or 5 beer bottles on a young man's grave, near the tombstone, which led me to believe that some youngsters had come to his grave and drank beer.

Irregardless of the circumstances, it is a sad, sad situation when a young person dies.  I have no idea how parents handle it, however, my mother, a woman with a 4th grade education once told me, "God gives you the strength."

Although it may not be of interest to you since you did not know him, there is an article and a video on the Channel 5 News Web Site at:

http://www.wptz.com/news/18027222/detail.html

[Dick Brown]

Henry                  I believe you were talking about Eddie Parker, and that Driscoll was his grandmother's last name.
That tragedy did affect many of us in the community, including his family of course, the driver of the car whom I really felt sorry for, and the young people, who lost a dear friend.  Eddie was such a gentle person and all who encountered him recognized his good nature, no matter what the circumstances were.  Fairfax has lost a number of its young through the years, and perhaps more then other communities, always draws closer as a group,to support the family as opposed to pointing the finger of blame.

[Henry]

You were right Dick, I did mean Parker instead of Driscoll  -  Thanks for noticing that.  I went up and corrected that (Thank God for the modify option).  For those of you that read this now, I had called Eddie Driscoll instead of Parker.

[MikeF9]

The empty beer cans left at a headstone of a young person were left there by family or friends as a tribute to that person. They probably used have a few beers with that person. You really don't want to leave a full can of beer, someone will drink it. So you leave an empty.