bmattock
Veteran
This morning, I woke up at 3:00 a.m. Don't know why. The house was quiet, there was no reason for me to be up. Still, I was wide awake. I got up and went to my sanctum sanctorum, in the room over the front porch that I've turned into an office of sorts. It looks out over our street, in our small town, and nothing ever really happens here - it's a quiet place, and that's the way we like it.
As I said, I got up at 3, and then I sat in my computer room. I puttered around online, I listend to several trains go by - long freight trains, by the sounds they made. Thought about how I could get some night shots of them going by, maybe from a bridge or something. It was so quiet and peaceful - I can hear everything from the street here - even people walking by and talking.
I'm off work today, because we've got some friends coming in from Denver on the Amtrak, they got misrouted and ended up in Chicago last night - they're enroute to Washington now and will be in Rocky Mount, NC tomorrow night. A day late but who cares when you're on a train? Then we're all gonna jump on a train to Boston this Saturday for a couple of nights and then the Mrs and I will head home while my friends go on to parts unknown.
So I was up, even if I was tired, when my wife arose and made me coffee (bless her). I was up when she left for work. I started in on some chores, since our friends are coming and I had to spruce up the guest bedroom.
But then I noticed all the undercover police cars in front of our house. Looked out, and discovered that just about ever dang cop in the town of Wilson was here, and our street was blocked off at both ends. Our neighbor across the street's house was cordoned off in police evidence tape, like you see in the movies. Two giant forensic vans and a CSI van and an ambulance. No sirens, they all just creeped up on us. They're still there, they've been there all day and now into the evening.
Seems our neighbor across the street had met an untimely end.
I never knew her. We're fairly new in town, having moved here from Albuquerque, New Mexico in late March (we bought this house in June). I had seen her many times. She had a daily habit of walking through the neighborhood. I didn't know her name, but I called her "Middle of the Street Walking Woman" to my wife, because she ignored sidewalks and walked straight down the middle of the street, moving for cars, but otherwise sticking to the middle of the road. She would walk tight and fast, with her hands grasping each other as she walked. I thought she might have been, well, slightly disturbed. She had a nervous gait, and she never looked to the sides while she went. I tried to wave at her a few times when I'd be out working on the yard, but she always ignored me. My wife told me she'd shy away when a door in the neighborhood would open - as if we were invading her space or frightening her.
It turns out that she was an art teacher at the local college. She was also an artist of some note (I'm told) and she was going to turn 50 tomorrow. She had recently split with her husband, he is in Florida. The police I spoke to said they had not yet ruled it a suicide - technically it is still a 'suspicious death' and is being treated as a potential homicide.
Her name was Paula A. Patterson; I'm sorry that I did not make more of an effort to meet her, even if only to introduce myself and say hello now and again. I know most of my neighbors, and they're real nice people, I just hadn't made her acquaintance.
Wilson, North Carolina is about 40,000 people. It's an hour's drive from the nearest large city (Raleigh) and we have about three homicides a year. Our neighborhood is quiet - an historic district full of restored bungalow cottages from the early 1920's. Nothing ever happens here, and that's the way we like it. Wife and I bought a Christmas tree tonight. We'll decorate it tomorrow, and try to celebrate the holidays in a proper, happy, fashion.
The holidays are here, my friends. Things happen, people lose hope. Holidays can make it worse. Please don't lose hope. Turn to someone, a friend, a family member, even post here if you need to, or send someone an email or call them.
The news people came and interviewed me, Gloria Lopez, who it turns out is from Colorado Springs (I grew up in Denver, at least since age 12). I'm on WRAL-TV Channel 5 in Raleigh at 10 p.m. EST tonight, if anyone cares to hear me blather. But I'm sad, really sad. A great world out there, and we need not be alone and hurting. Life is too short to spend it in pain.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
http://www.wral.com/news/3959269/detail.html
As I said, I got up at 3, and then I sat in my computer room. I puttered around online, I listend to several trains go by - long freight trains, by the sounds they made. Thought about how I could get some night shots of them going by, maybe from a bridge or something. It was so quiet and peaceful - I can hear everything from the street here - even people walking by and talking.
I'm off work today, because we've got some friends coming in from Denver on the Amtrak, they got misrouted and ended up in Chicago last night - they're enroute to Washington now and will be in Rocky Mount, NC tomorrow night. A day late but who cares when you're on a train? Then we're all gonna jump on a train to Boston this Saturday for a couple of nights and then the Mrs and I will head home while my friends go on to parts unknown.
So I was up, even if I was tired, when my wife arose and made me coffee (bless her). I was up when she left for work. I started in on some chores, since our friends are coming and I had to spruce up the guest bedroom.
But then I noticed all the undercover police cars in front of our house. Looked out, and discovered that just about ever dang cop in the town of Wilson was here, and our street was blocked off at both ends. Our neighbor across the street's house was cordoned off in police evidence tape, like you see in the movies. Two giant forensic vans and a CSI van and an ambulance. No sirens, they all just creeped up on us. They're still there, they've been there all day and now into the evening.
Seems our neighbor across the street had met an untimely end.
I never knew her. We're fairly new in town, having moved here from Albuquerque, New Mexico in late March (we bought this house in June). I had seen her many times. She had a daily habit of walking through the neighborhood. I didn't know her name, but I called her "Middle of the Street Walking Woman" to my wife, because she ignored sidewalks and walked straight down the middle of the street, moving for cars, but otherwise sticking to the middle of the road. She would walk tight and fast, with her hands grasping each other as she walked. I thought she might have been, well, slightly disturbed. She had a nervous gait, and she never looked to the sides while she went. I tried to wave at her a few times when I'd be out working on the yard, but she always ignored me. My wife told me she'd shy away when a door in the neighborhood would open - as if we were invading her space or frightening her.
It turns out that she was an art teacher at the local college. She was also an artist of some note (I'm told) and she was going to turn 50 tomorrow. She had recently split with her husband, he is in Florida. The police I spoke to said they had not yet ruled it a suicide - technically it is still a 'suspicious death' and is being treated as a potential homicide.
Her name was Paula A. Patterson; I'm sorry that I did not make more of an effort to meet her, even if only to introduce myself and say hello now and again. I know most of my neighbors, and they're real nice people, I just hadn't made her acquaintance.
Wilson, North Carolina is about 40,000 people. It's an hour's drive from the nearest large city (Raleigh) and we have about three homicides a year. Our neighborhood is quiet - an historic district full of restored bungalow cottages from the early 1920's. Nothing ever happens here, and that's the way we like it. Wife and I bought a Christmas tree tonight. We'll decorate it tomorrow, and try to celebrate the holidays in a proper, happy, fashion.
The holidays are here, my friends. Things happen, people lose hope. Holidays can make it worse. Please don't lose hope. Turn to someone, a friend, a family member, even post here if you need to, or send someone an email or call them.
The news people came and interviewed me, Gloria Lopez, who it turns out is from Colorado Springs (I grew up in Denver, at least since age 12). I'm on WRAL-TV Channel 5 in Raleigh at 10 p.m. EST tonight, if anyone cares to hear me blather. But I'm sad, really sad. A great world out there, and we need not be alone and hurting. Life is too short to spend it in pain.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
http://www.wral.com/news/3959269/detail.html
