Andy's girlfriend won't let him shop at a mall this Christmas

Omaha Westroads Mall tragedy – 8 people plus the killer

Robert Hawkins, 19 – assault rifle in front of a mannequin

Left a 3 page handwritten note – tragic life – depression, in and out of care

neighbor – lost puppy nobody wanted

Left a note – predicting shooting would make him famous

Didn't want to be a burden, crap all his life – now famous

Got off elevator in front of department store – and went at it

Not famous

In fact, forgotten by next week

Forgotten by nearly everybody

VPI tragedy – distant memory – name shooter?

Penn State students – real classy – but average person not really changed by it

But Robert Hawkins won't be forgotten by everybody

At least 15 families – 8 dead plus critically injured

Got up expecting a normal day – Christmas season – maybe expecting better than normal

By time went to bed that night – had spent the day at the morgue

Changed permanently

Carry mental image – of sending a child on errand to mall for Christmas gift, or perhaps sending mom off to work at the mall – never to see them again

Powerful reminder on how it can all turn on a dime – change in a moment

They will never feel the same way again, will always be different

See things differently now

Some folks are crushed by it

Others find a new beginning, a new life

How do they do that?

Most of us, I hope, never experience this kind of life-changing moment

I think we'd all like to know the life change that comes from it if it we could do so without the grief and the pain

Like my friend, Glen, got up in 1994 to celebrate his daughter's birthday party, when everything changed – what happened that day made him one of most influential people I know – coming up

Have you had this kind of life-changing day or moment?

Bitter or better?

No simple calls- diagnosis with disease or something – someone you love left on a trip and never came back, tower of 9/11, etc..





Miscellaneous

Salt Lake shooting in a mall

The shoppers killed were identified as Gary Scharf, 48, of Lincoln, and John McDonald, 65, of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The six employees killed were Angie Schuster, 36; Maggie Webb, 24; Janet Jorgensen, 67; Dianne Trent, 53; Gary Joy, 56; and Beverly Flynn, 47, all of Omaha.

1994 – Nashville, Mike 16, Daughter, 14

15 lives changes permanently, irrevocably

Ward of state – 4 years - $265,000 – groups homes, foster care, treatment center