The Dreaded Phone Call That Wasn’t

To the Editor:

While sitting at home pondering the events of Saturday morning, May 5, and the days and events to follow, I felt that I had to express my feelings. I sat in front of the computer for quite awhile and couldn’t quite find the words. I somehow kept hitting a roadblock. I kept thinking about that phone call I received at 4:30 Saturday morning. You know the phone call. The one that every parent of a teenager fears the most. The phone call that awoke both my wife and me from a sound sleep. My wife jumped up and recognized our daughter’s cell phone number on our caller ID. My heart stopped as my wife answered the phone. She asked are you all right? Are your friends all right? Is everything OK? Once assured that she and her friends were fine, she told me that the police were at the Gissens and that I had to pick up our daughter.

As I drove there, I relived the phone call and the possibility of what the message at the other end could have been. As I arrived at the Gissens, cars were still parked up and down their street and two police cars with lights on were in front of their home. When I saw my daughter standing at the front entry with Tom and Lisa Gissen, I walked up and saw the pain on their faces. I extended my hand and as Tom apologized to me, I simply told him, “Thank You!!” Yes that was my roadblock, searching for the appropriate thing to say in this letter, when all along I had said it the morning of May 5. Tom and Lisa, Thank You, for keeping my child safe and making sure that no parent in Newtown received that dreaded phone call.

Gene Vetrano

6 Camelot Crest, Sandy Hook                                         May 15, 2007