I can't count the number of death messages I have delivered since 1969., many of them to people I knew, including telling the head of the criminal justice program where I had gone to college that his son had been killed in a wreck in Alabama. If the death messages were local or out of state and I knew them I volunteered to be the messenger. Many times I did it anyway because the guys I worked with knew I would do it. This is something a lot of people won't do. If it happened to me, which it has, I would much rather someone I knew tell me about it and be there for me. Just a few years ago (I posted it here) I held a grandfather up as he learned two of his grandsons had been killed in the car he was driving. We eventually had to have him sedated and taken by ambulance to the hospital. The last message I delivered involved telling a mother her only son had been killed in a car wreck. She lived in a mobile home by herself. I stayed with her for over two hours until her daughter could come down from Jackson and be with her. I've only got a few more days wearing the badge. I don't want to deliver any more death messages. Your film clip brings back a lot of memories.
