Sometimes it is hard not to think about "what if". What if the plane had gone down a hundred yards further south? What if Custer had waited for help? What if the cure for a terrible disease had been discovered ten years earlier? You get the idea.
When Charles Wilson was killed attempting to catch a house bugler, in Livingston Montana on October 20, 1924, his family, fellow officers and the entire town must have thought about "what if?" Wilson was not scheduled for that shift. He was covering for another officer who wanted to go hunting. What if he had not been the kind of man who would help out another fellow by covering for him? Imagine the anguish of the man whose shift he covered. He must have asked himself hundreds of times. What if I had gone to work that day?
Every time I walk past the Memorial display in the City-County building in Livingston, I have to think about "What if". There are four pictures there, all with compelling stories but the one that haunts me is Officer Wilson. When I see that face I see the face of my six uncles who were Officer Wilson's sons. Charles Wilson was married to my Grandmother. When he was gunned down she was left to raise six young sons on her own. In time she remarried, and had three daughters, one of them was my mother.
So in answer to the question, what if Charles Wilson had stayed home from work that day? I would not be posting this story on my blog. If Charles Wilson had lived a long, healthy and prosperous life, there wouldn't be a me. Makes you stop and think doesn't it?
No comments:
Post a Comment