Imagine delivering your victim impact statement to confessed murderer Colonel Russell Williams and challenging him to lift his bowed head and look at you while you speak…and have him comply.
And as you deliver your statement directly to him, what would you feel?:
Shock?
Outrage?
Hate…knowing no punishment could make your shattered life better?
Despair?
Anger?
Perhaps relief…at finally being able to express your thoughts and with the knowledge that more crimes have been stopped?
Or disappointment, because of Williams’ blasé attitude to the crimes he’s committed?
(From what I’ve heard but not seen, he cried and apologized this morning—If you saw that footage tell me what your thoughts are…what your reaction was.)
I just don’t know where to start with this story—breaking and entering, sexual assault, forcible confinement, and first-degree murder charges…all against the former CFB Trenton commander.
This story is so incredibly horrific that I’ve been rendered speechless for days while I’ve watched some of it unfold in the media!
Having been raised in a military family, with my father achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel with him also having been a base commander, I am stunned to realize someone with such high authority as Williams was able to do what he did.
And to know Williams was posted to multiple locations during his career…I shudder to think of the possibility there may be other occurrences of similarly heinous crimes.
I am thankful, for sake of the families and friends of the victims, that this ordeal is finally ‘over’ and that Williams is on his way to federal penitentiary for life.
As Kathleen MacVicar’s mother, Colleen, recently said, “It’s important to put a name and a face to what created such a horror in this family. (Kathleen’s sexually assaulted and stabbed body was found at the military base in 2001. –nine years ago!!)
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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The day which we fear as our last, is but the birthday of eternity.
~Seneca
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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TV Shows and Clips about the Death of Cindy James
Life is an opportunity; benefit from it.
Life is a beauty; admire it.
Life is a dream; realize it.
Life is a challenge; meet it.
Life is a duty; complete it.
Life is a game; play it.
Life is a promise; fulfill it.
Life is sorrow; overcome it.
Life is a song; sing it.
Life is a struggle; accept it.
Life is a tragedy; confront it.
Life is an adventure; dare it.
Life is luck; make it.
Life is life; fight for it.
~Mother Teresa
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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Roy, thanks for passing along this ‘keeper’ saying.
“Between yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s dreams is today’s opportunity.”
~Author Unknown
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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Vera, thanks for passing the following story on to me:
Recently I overheard a Father and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the Father said, “I love you, and I wish you enough.”
The daughter replied, “Dad, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Dad.”
They kissed and the daughter left. The Father walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?”
“Yes, I have,” I replied. “Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?”
“I am old, and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is – the next trip back will be for my funeral,” he said.
“When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough.’ May I ask what that means?”
He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.”
He paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and he smiled even more. “When we said, ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.”
Then turning toward me, he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how grey the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.
He then began to cry and walked away.
They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them; but then an entire life to forget them.
To all my friends and loved ones, I WISH YOU ENOUGH.
~Original author unknown, but Bob Perks wrote a book and expanded on the sentiments above.
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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It is healthy and honorable to weep at the loss of someone we love. Healthy because such passion must be released. Honorable because it is respectful to admit the importance of people who have loved and supported us…people whose footprints cannot ever be matched.
~Maya Angelou
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.
~John Muir
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and that its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set in night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere.
~Goethe (German novelist, playwright, poet, scientist; 1749-1832)
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
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May today there be peace within.
May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others.
May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content with yourself just the way you are.
Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
Thanks Marlene for passing on this prayer…one that probably finds its roots in a prayer of St Theresa:
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received,
And pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones
And allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
Read an excerpt now
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When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high;
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit –
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are;
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.
~Author unknown
Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My Friend
Read an excerpt now
TV Shows and Clips about the Death of Cindy James