Let every word be as kind as if it were your last.

There's no picture for this post, but it's an important one (and there's an explosion in it, if that helps, a real one, no kidding.)

I talked with my brother Tom on the phone recently and we happened to reminisce about some kids we knew from the old days, Robert Schrader among them.

Robert Schrader attended Bethel Christian School with me for part of a year, 7th grade if I recall correctly

Robert was adopted and had a troubled home life. Mrs Andrus, our 7th Grade Bible teacher (and Pastor Andrus's wife), encouraged us to include him in our activities, and to pray for him when he wasn't in class, which was often.

But other than some absenteeism, I never saw any behavior issues in Robert at school. He was a good kid, intelligent and kind.

Now, there is another Robert in this story: Robert Flowers.

I went to Vernondale Elementary School with Robert Flowers; Flowers got into trouble quite a bit and was a few years older than me. A big kid. He was big to me in elementary school and he was big to Robert Schrader a few years later in junior high school. They became friends and I think young Robert looked up to older Robert.

There is a term for bad things that happen when two people of complementing mindsets get together to create a single mind capable of actions that neither would do alone - folie a deux. And that may fit here.

Well, the two Roberts ran away from home together, and both were killed in a gas explosion. I don't know all the details, but as I recall it, they encountered a shack, there was no electricity, and one of them lit a lighter and ignited a gas leak.

Robert Flowers died in the blast. Robert Schrader died from burns a few days later in the hospital, despite the fervent prayers of a lot of 7th graders.

The last thing I remember Robert Schrader telling me before he ran away was that I didn't like him, which was entirely untrue. I protested at the time, but he insisted. Someone told him so, and he believed it. I remember vividly where we were and what was said.

I have no idea, even now, having thought about this many times for nearly 40 years, how anything I said or did could have conveyed this message.

But that didn't' matter.

Someone disliked Robert so much, they couldn't find enough spite in their own heart, so they invented it in others.

Adults do this too.

c0

Rest in peace, Robert.

[2013-03-26]

c0