Our Point of View

Save Yourself

By Mark A. Jicha - Thanksgiving 2004

The problem owning a company that publishes a humor magazine on a monthly basis is that the publication, like the The Show, must go on.

But sadly, life is not a show; and when you least expect it life reminds you, sometimes in spectacularly unexpected and savage ways, that it creates its own deadlines & content.

Two weeks ago on a sunny southern California morning my sister rounded a corner in her well-turned suburban Long Beach backyard and walked into an intruder trying to pry his way into the back door with a large knife. He easily overpowered her arthritic body and stabbed her twice in the throat, severing an artery that fountained blood for about a minute and she was gone.

True.

Death rarely comes with a face we expect and at the end of the day, we all visit nothingness alone. Almost every death brings some measure of tragedy and terror, and most come suddenly on the highway or silently in a quiet bed. There is no way to prepare for murder in your life, nor the nasty ironies that hover like cunning tricksters waiting to ambush any sense of sanity our family tries to reclaim.

Here's the first unlikely twist: Her next-door neighbor saw a suspicious person about 11 am and the police responded; in fact, they met her at her front door and asked permission to search the back yard. Lynn Marie had been home all morning and was certain there was no intruder, but instead of letting the police into the house, she pulled the front glass door shut (and locked) and walked thru the house, out the sliding doors out the back and all but into the intruder's arms. Police estimate she lived a minute or less after the attack.

Number two.

The murderer grabbed a sack of cheap jewelry, ran out of the house and vaulted the back fence, into the waiting arms of another police unit. Those cops arrested him on the spot - literally red-handed, soaked in my sister's blood - and had him in cuffs less than 2 minutes after they had arrived. Nicholas Harvey, 22, of Port Hueneme CA in Ventura County confessed twice before the arraignment three days later, and only then inherited a public defender. No criminal record. No drug history. No known ties to the area, the neighbors or my sister's home.

Lynn and her husband had shared their share of problems, but they created the most beautiful 14-year--old boy ever built. Charlie is a true joy in life and a boy holding up under an incredible emotional load. Having suffered thru the sudden (heart attack) death of my dad at age 18, I simply can't fathom the forces that must be tearing his heart and soul, but I’ll be there for him until the day I die.

As soon as I could collect my wits and shift focus, I jumped the next flight to LAX and met my brother the next day in LA where media frenzy was in full tilt. Dish-equipped news vans parked in every inconvenient location possible, and reporters called about every 20 minutes. One tried to hurdle the fence into the back yard for "exclusive footage" but the police provided a rude reception.

Having once called myself a newsman, I couldn't help but be just a little ashamed of the craft. I approached one " roving reporter" from the CBS affiliate and asked if he realized how much he resembled a vulture. When he appeared again the next day, I asked if was employing the "Nazi defense;" you know, " just following orders."

Representatives from the TODAY Show called a couple of times, but we all know, even a sensational suburban murder fills the airwaves for only so long. The story fell off the radar screen as we were trying to hold each other together and understand the depth of our loss.

Our family is still trying to figure out where we go from here. We're gonna pull together and keep it together as best we can. It's hard approaching the holidays with a "get tough or die" philosophy, but by God, we'll start hammering the hot alloys we must forge into new bonds - smaller and more finely-tempered - and harder yet for times to come.

There's only one lesson here worth learning - no life here on Earth will last forever and you'd better cherish your loved ones before they die.