The woman who does the housekeeping for the building where I work (at Tulane) is quite pleasant, and we've chatted a couple of times, although not in the last week or so.

Today she was feeling really down and I found out why. Her 21 year old son had killed two people a week or so ago. I vaguely recall seeing something about it on TV. He had shot a man, probably for drugs, with an AK47, but his shots also killed a young mother of four.

You can imagine how torn up she is. She has two older kids who lead crime-free lives, but the youngest has been a handful since his teens. He spent time in a juvenile facility that was so bad it's been closed. That did absolutely nothing for him in the reform way. She didn't have to say anything--once she said the name of the facility I could put two and two together. And he just recently got out of "grown-up" prison for some drug offense. She knows he'll never be free again.

And she is torn up about the four motherless children.

What do you say?

I don't think there's anything to say, but I can listen to her when she needs to talk. And so can (and do) the others in the building.