When I saw the Casket that held my friend, I could do nothing, I watched as she became a friend and suddenly, she was gunned down. In The Life, your friends often make choices that you won't understand, it becomes your goal to ask them, why? Only they can no longer answer those question because they now lay six feet under. With a rose laid on their grave as if it would bring them back to life; when my friend made that choice. I was shocked, yet we all lived by a code. She broke it and became marked, its the way of life that has defined this thing of ours for over a century...

You're probably sitting there, wondering what you could have to done to stop it, but you can't, the die is cast and the deed is done. The only thing you can do my children is to talk to those you are closest too, try to get them out of thinking that way, make sure you become that person they vent out on, whether it be through fists or words, allow them the moment and perhaps, you may just see what they hold underneath. 

Maybe I should have done for my friend, but only I could not, I was perhaps the only one who could not do anything. I was too blind to see the signs, yet it happened and I could do nothing, the shots fired and taunts were thrown, many people wondered, did we know? Did we have a hand in it? The answer? No, we did not, but we neither did anything to notice the signs. Perhaps it was always there, or perhaps we were caught up with our own lives.

My advice to you all; is notice the signs and stop them before it is too late because you guys have no idea how much your words might mean to them. You have the power at that moment, you can let your friend rise out of the ashes like a phoenix or you can let them rest in the Casket, as I did with my friend.

I love you, my children, do what I could not...

~ Charles Pavanno