John Q. Public, Salisbury, NC
♦ Many people in Salisbury are in a state of shock about what has happened here. They were kept in the dark for years. It’s as if the phone rang in the middle of the night and someone they didn’t know was informing them their son or daughter was dead. The voice sounded distant at first.
You ask the caller: “Do you have the right number? Are you certain its him? ”
“I’m sorry, “said the voice. “Would you care to come down and identify him?”
“Tell me this all again. Repeat it please. I’m trying to understand.”
“Salisbury is here at the medical examiners. We need you to come down to make an identification. Can you get someone to take you here?”
“I’ll be there.”
Everything is distant and far away as you pull yourself together with a huge tense knot in your gut. Over and over you replay the words you just heard. Still it all sounds distant and far away. Incredible until you arrive 15 minutes later and they wheel the lifeless form out on a gurney. You see his face appearing ceramic like now. Drained of color and life. The coat is his. The wallet and photo ID.
“Would you sign this?”, said a voice behind you. You turn and look down at a clipboard. A certificate of death for the city you called hometown.
You really don’t want to look at the cause of death. The medical examiner provided a long typewritten explanation. Sometime in the future it will all sink in and make sense.
Just not now.
