Across America on that awful day, parents struggled to find words, to find perspective, to find comforting thoughts that would digest a nightmare. Thousands of miles from Newtown, Conn., parents understood they would have to explain unthinkable terror to children who should have been years away from its harsh touch.
But what if you lived in Newtown?
What if your child was an alumna of Sandy Hook Elementary?
And what if one of her favorite teachers was soon to become one of the faces of this heartbreak, her smiling face beaming across newspapers and newscasts, forever 27 years old, forever a reminder of a heroic cost?
“That,” Monte Frank says, “is a conversation that will haunt me the rest of my life.”
Sarah Frank is 11 years old, a sixth grader, but three years ago her regular teacher went on maternity leave and was replaced by a young woman named Victoria Soto. Teacher and pupil hit it off immediately, they stayed in regular contact even after Sarah was promoted to fourth grade, even after she left Sandy Hook for middle school.
“Such a wonderful person, such a wonderful teacher,” Monte says. “My daughter loved her.”
He pauses.
“You can imagine,” he says, “what it was like to have to tell her …”
Actually, it’s unimaginable what Monte Frank, what any Newtown parent, had to tell their children on the afternoon of Dec. 14, when the news bulletins began to stick, when the scope of the shootings began to take hold, when the names of the 20 students and six staffers were revealed.
In a moment of catastrophe, in its aftermath, the instinct is to want to do something. Anything. Monte Frank had an idea. He has been a competitive cyclist for years, and suddenly found himself, along with many others, wanting to make a statement about what he calls “sensible gun legislation.”
Yesterday morning, that notion became something else. Early on a sunny Saturday, Frank and 25 other elite cyclists, dubbing themselves “Team 26,” gathered in Newtown to begin a four-day trip to Washington, D.C. They were sent off by the Connecticut Congressional delegation and will be welcomed to the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday by the same lawmakers, and along the way will spread a message borne out of sadness but grounded in hope.
“I don’t think anyone will ever forget what happened,” Monte Frank says. “But if there can be a positive element that comes out from this tragedy, if we can help curb gun violence and raise awareness … maybe that’ll mean we did a small part of the healing.”
Essentially, Team 26 will be a rolling rally across 350 miles, making stops in Ridgefield, Conn., and Morristown, N.J., and Baltimore. In Frenchtown, N.J., there will be a ceremony featuring Mike Pohle, whose son, Michael, was among the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.
And in what probably will be the most emotional leg of the journey, Team 26 will be joined Tuesday in College Park, Md., by a group of riders from the Virginia Tech Victims Riding Team, and together they will cover the final 15 miles to the Capitol.
“It’s an example of how united we are in this cause,” Frank says. “We like to say that ‘We are Virginia Tech.’ And they say, ‘We are Sandy Hook.’”
Three months after unimaginable darkness descended upon Newtown, its citizens are hoping to grow the light. Maybe then those unthinkable conversations between parents and children, begun that awful afternoon, can finally be given a closing chapter.
Whack Back at Vac
Jim Burns: Now that the Mets have leased Amway a storefront at Citi Field, is it true that the stadium’s parking lot attendants will now also be squeegee men, and gambling will be allowed in select restrooms?
Vac: A word to the wise: Beware the gentlemen selling popcorn, peanuts, and three-card Monte.
Stephen Macary: Thanks for putting into words what every fan is going through with Mariano. It’s a very sad day. I will enjoy each and every game Mariano pitches this season because it is truly the end of an era. For me, first was Bernie, then Jorge, now Mariano and one day Andy and Derek.
Vac: You want to know a good definition for “icon?” You see it there. Only first names are necessary.
@OpinesMine: J.R. Smith is a feast-or-famine guy, capable of extraordinary highs, backbreaking lows. But [at the end of Thursday’s 95-94 loss to the Thunder] Mike Woodson must run a play there. Has to!
@MikeVacc: I think Woodson has done a terrific job. But it does seem he had a lot stronger hand with his players when he took over last year as a temp than he does now as a perm.
@defiantlydutch: Your last line in last Sunday’s column, suggesting John Idzik follow Brian Cashman as a skydiver, is now an all-timer: “Although … it couldn’t hurt.”
@MikeVacc: Other pearls of advice for Idzik: “Take the Titanic, and thank me later” … “I would definitely DVR ‘1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’” … “Extend Sanchez.”
Vac’s Whacks
I Spent many a night early in my career at West Point’s Christl Arena watching some not-so-good Army teams fight and flail away. So I am delighted for Zach Spiker’s Black Knights, who this week clinched the program’s first winning season since 1984-85, when the great Kevin Houston, Pearl River’s own, was a sophomore.
* Honestly, couldn’t the suits at NBC and ABC do everyone a big solid and consolidate two terribly flawed shows and give us something much, much better called “Smashville?”
* It makes me feel bad as a baseball fan, and as an American, that I don’t care about the World Baseball Classic more than I do.
* Somewhere in the city, there are former Mets fans who defected to the Yankees the past few months and are already wondering if Phil Hughes, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira are their fault. Which, of course, serves them right for defecting in the first place.