A school shooting in Perry, Iowa? Tell me it isn’t so! I used to know sleepy little Perry so well. A long time ago, I loved a boy who went to Perry High. My memories of overnights at his family farm fill me with the warmth of a rising sun. As red light broke over the horizon, we’d muck out stalls, spread straw, gather eggs, and sneak kisses behind the henhouse before breakfast.
We were 16, wide eyed, and full of possibility. Neither of us had ever heard of a school shooting, nor could we imagine such a thing.
After studying agriculture in college, he married a woman, and they raised a family. Were any of them touched by the horror last week?