Perfect Moments

We got wind recently of an idea taking root at Prestwood School.  The “Maloney Perfect Moment Garden” will not only serve to enhance the campus but, more importantly, be a living memorial to the Maloney family.  John Maloney was treasured by his family for embracing those perfect moments in life – indelible snapshots too precious to be forgotten.
In light of a more recent tragedy, space will be made in the garden to remember young Anjalee Sanchez, the Prestwood first grader who was found dead beside her mother last week in an apparent murder/suicide.
In a very short span of time, we’ve been forced to wonder what makes one driver go so fast as to wipe an entire family of four off the face the earth and, what kind of desperation would cause a mother to take the life of her child, and then herself.
Sonoma seems to be wracked by this type of sadness lately.  The fatal car accident that claimed the life of Gretchen Emis, the disappearance of the now infamous exterminator, and others we’ve lost too soon.  We pull together in times like this – a strong community simultaneously committed to those closest to us as well as those outside our immediate circle but within our realm of empathy.
We meet for coffee, see each other at school drop-off, bump into one another in the grocery store, all the while grieving and consoling one another while pondering the unthinkable choices people make.  We like to think of ourselves as an open community – one willing to help at a moment’s notice.  If that is really true, then how can these things happen under our noses?  A mother so seemingly alone that she thinks no one will notice if she and her child no longer walk among us.  A father who leaves behind his wife and children to take the company truck on what amounts to an illegal jaunt to Reno.  A woman driven by unknown demons to flee the police, ending up dead, alone in a grisly car wreck.
A line in the song “Desperado” comes to mind; “Your prison is walking through this world all alone.” For many of us, it’s hard to imagine being so alone.  For others, maybe this is not quite as difficult.  What is unthinkable, though, are the rational decisions people make based on their choices at hand.  When the choices are few, bad or both, the results can be disastrous.
Let us keep choices like this in mind as we move through our daily lives.  We call ourselves a supportive community, let’s truly be one.  Strike up a conversation with the lonely single mother at the mailbox.  It might be the only bright spot in her day.  Ask after the contractor’s family to help remind him what should be most important in his life.  Check in with estranged or reclusive family members to draw them out into the community that is Sonoma.
We have all had perfect moments in our lives.  In our view, everyone is entitled to have them as often as possible.