Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cary Clark

After returning from a visit with Trasie's family yesterday, I went to the church office this morning and checked phone messages: Chester, this is Angela. Cary has been murdered...I just thought you should know.

Some time ago (May 2009) I posted about a new strategy for providing care for off the street visitors. Cary was the only one who had taken me up on it. We met for several consecutive weeks, and forged an interesting friendship. We met at church and he would bake me bread. I went to his house a few times, and he gave me the best tea I'd ever had. He told me cool stories about his world and life that was so foreign to me, that of an artist, a drug-addict, someone who was comfortable in situations that would have freaked me out.
He so desperately wanted to escape the demon-filled world that haunted him; and he turned to me and the church for help. He attended services and a few Bible studies. He came to the despedida for Claudia. I took him to ER so he could get checked in a treatment facility. He disappeared late August. I missed seeing him all of September. We traded a few phone calls. I went to his place and when I didn't find him there, I left a note. I figured eventually we'd run across each other. I really had hopes that he was going to be able to turn things around....

The phone message from Angela really got to me. I went to see her this morning. She cried; I tried to hold it together. I don't know what it was about him, something drew me to him, his giftedness for the arts, his mysterious life, his intelect? I think he was just a nice guy; someone I could be friends with. Angela told me that he really liked me. That meant a lot. I hope I can help her and others of his friends in their grief. I'm going to miss the Cary I knew, and I'm going to have to grieve the Cary I did not get a chance to know because his life was taken so suddenly. I would put a link to the article that came out on him in the paper, but it's not worth it. It was so negative--an inaccurate, in my opinion, portrail of who he was. He was painted as someone the world was fortunate to be rid of...not for me, not for those who were at his home this morning sorting through his few possessions, his most treasured was his printing press. It took up an entire room!

I'll write more about Cary as I know what's going on. I'm sorry it ended this way. I pray that God have mercy on him, those who offended him, and those he offended, and that the circumstances of his death are brought to bare, and that there can be forgiveness where necessary.

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