Death

February is always a tough month for me. It’s so very bitter sweet. So many birthdays – mine and cousins Nicole, George, Nick and Jessica, all of whom I am close to.  It also is the anniversary of a few deaths, my mother’s on the 17th (which also happens to be my cousin Nick’s birthday), and two others.

Twenty-three years ago my friend and the love of my high school life, Lou Scudieri, died of pneumonia. I had just turned 20 and was home from college for the day when my best friend Dave came over to tell me the news. I was stunned and don’t remember much except him being buried in a white vest. That same day a guy I did not know would also die at the hands of someone I did.

On February 12, 1988, Brian Scott Blevins killed a guy who was house sitting for Tim Lyons, Dean of YSU’s School of Fine and Performing Arts. I didn’t know Blevins, who went by Scott, very well, but we knew he was dating Dean Lyons and he often popped up at rehearsals and theatre events. Shortly before the murder I remember hanging out with him in the Youngstown Playhouse’s light booth during tech for a show. He seemed like nice guy and was very quiet – something most theatre folks aren’t. I was shocked when he was arrested. I spent a good hour today trying to find any info on the murder because I couldn’t remember the name of the victim. He was house sitting for the Dean and Scott assumed he was dating him and stabbed him repeatedly with a pair of scissors and wedged his body between the wall and the Dean’s bed.

I felt so guilty not being able to remember his name. It seems like so long ago, but I’m sure it’s just like it happened yesterday for his parents.

Tonight Mark and I were out at Easton when the place was surrounded by police and the police helicopter was circling above us obviously searching for someone. We didn’t find out until a few hours later that a 15 year old boy was shot in the back of the head and taken to Children’s Hospital in critical condition. The news made me sick to my stomach and took me back to the night Nick was taken to Children’s. I have been praying for this young man, but the news this evening said that homicide detectives were still on the scene investigating, so I fear he didn’t make it. I hope to God I’m wrong.