Decisions Forced upon Us: Windows Opened or Closed?
By Laurel E. Anderson
Kanata Kourier-Standard Sept. 23/05
It’s Monday. The Monday after the Sunday that a body was found on an NCC trail near my home. It has now been confirmed that this is the body of missing teen Jennifer Teague and I can’t even imagine what her parents and other loved ones are going through right now. As a parent myself, I find it hard to fathom the idea of one of my children just disappearing. No explanation, no sightings and no meek call home saying, “I messed up, can you come and get me.” Not knowing must be awful with not being able to do anything even worse.
As parents, first we protect and then we educate these young souls that have been entrusted in our care. One side of us wants to tell our children to be carefree, to explore the world around them and see what it has to offer. BUT, not without a helmet or without a friend or cell phone or a ride from a parent back and forth after dark-sometimes even before dark.
We don’t want our children to be paranoid and even more so, we don’t want them to see or sense fear in those they trust the most-their parents. We are their rock. We fix everything and try to always provide a safe and loving environment for them to develop in. But unfortunately we have another role to play. We are gatekeepers and the one’s who have to say ‘no’ out of a need to protect and sometimes out of our own fear whether substantiated or not.
On Sunday night I headed to the convenience store and that’s when I heard the news that a body had been found right near my neighbourhood. Talk was already that it was Jennifer and similarities to the unsolved case of Ardeth Woods were already circulating. The people that I overheard talking sounded worried, concerned that this has hit so close to home. First a disappearance and then a body. Personally, I felt a huge sadness come over me for who this young person once belonged to and as a parent of two children.
Back at home the kids are tucked in safely and I ponder the world we live in and what we can do to be proactive, knowing that we have to continue to live our lives and not let these situations bully us but at the same time well aware that we have to be vigilant and safe without creating a sense of paranoia in our families. My question is how do we really do this?
As I head upstairs to bed I contemplate closing the kids’ bedroom windows and brush it off as a silly thought as I go and brush my teeth, It’s at this time that my husband suggests that we close the upstairs windows and turn on the air conditioning. That’s exactly what we do as we head to bed in sleep suburbia, praying for a peace for the Teague family and some calm in our own lives.