(See: Knife & Gun Club - Part 2)As a staff nurse, my responsibility was not to contact family members. We had a clinical coordinator and chaplain to do that sort of thing. So I guess I was off the hook. But I did promise that I would “tell Cameron” and that bothered me.
I asked a couple of other nurses, techs and the ER doc what their opinions were of contacting family 'after the fact'. The general consensus was that I would be NUTS to even consider calling. Decision made. No phone calls to Cameron or any other gangster’s family members. This was a time to reinforce those ‘boundaries’ that I had been working on.
A couple of days later, while reading The Dallas Morning News, a story caught my eye about a young man who had been working the evening shift in Dallas when, on his way home, he became involved in a minor ‘fender-bender’. The cars were pulled over on the Dallas Tollway when a drive-by witness saw a tall, black man get out of his vehicle and walk towards two men who pulled out weapons and started shooting him. The man was a 29 year old named Michael Baxter (not his real name – although I clearly remember what his real name was) he left a wife and son.
The story continued to say that a few days before his death, Michael had spoken with his wife, Anna, and told her he felt that he had done what God wanted him to do in this world. She pleaded with him to talk about these feelings with their pastor and on the morning of his death, he did what she had asked. When he kissed her and their son good-bye on that afternoon, Anna said that she had a bad feeling about him going to work, but kept it to herself.
Michael was not a gangster.
According to his obituary, he was a hard worker and dearly loved by many.
Although, I would feel the tug on occasion to “tell Cameron”, I resisted the urge. I had no business in getting involved at this point. After all, these people had been through enough. What would I say to them anyway? Who was Cameron? A man? A mistress? Far too complex. Let it go.
And then, about six months after Michael died, I had a vivid dream. It was Michael’s voice and he simply stated his first and last name. That was it. I knew I just had to try to get in touch with his wife.
Next: Knife & Gun Club - Part 4
I asked a couple of other nurses, techs and the ER doc what their opinions were of contacting family 'after the fact'. The general consensus was that I would be NUTS to even consider calling. Decision made. No phone calls to Cameron or any other gangster’s family members. This was a time to reinforce those ‘boundaries’ that I had been working on.
A couple of days later, while reading The Dallas Morning News, a story caught my eye about a young man who had been working the evening shift in Dallas when, on his way home, he became involved in a minor ‘fender-bender’. The cars were pulled over on the Dallas Tollway when a drive-by witness saw a tall, black man get out of his vehicle and walk towards two men who pulled out weapons and started shooting him. The man was a 29 year old named Michael Baxter (not his real name – although I clearly remember what his real name was) he left a wife and son.
The story continued to say that a few days before his death, Michael had spoken with his wife, Anna, and told her he felt that he had done what God wanted him to do in this world. She pleaded with him to talk about these feelings with their pastor and on the morning of his death, he did what she had asked. When he kissed her and their son good-bye on that afternoon, Anna said that she had a bad feeling about him going to work, but kept it to herself.
Michael was not a gangster.
According to his obituary, he was a hard worker and dearly loved by many.
Although, I would feel the tug on occasion to “tell Cameron”, I resisted the urge. I had no business in getting involved at this point. After all, these people had been through enough. What would I say to them anyway? Who was Cameron? A man? A mistress? Far too complex. Let it go.
And then, about six months after Michael died, I had a vivid dream. It was Michael’s voice and he simply stated his first and last name. That was it. I knew I just had to try to get in touch with his wife.
Next: Knife & Gun Club - Part 4
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