For Alison: The Murder of a Young Journalist and a Father's Fight for Gun Safety by Andy Parker
Author:Andy Parker [Parker, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Violence in Society, Family & Relationships, Death; Grief; Bereavement, Law, Mental Health, Biography & Autobiography, Editors; Journalists; Publishers, Social Activists
ISBN: 9781948062336
Google: f-qmDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Apollo Publishers
Published: 2019-03-04T23:00:00+00:00
•
Alison’s next honor came on September 26, 2015, a month to the day after her death.
Dancing with the Valley Stars, a popular Roanoke fundraiser that benefits the Salvation Army, was scheduled for that night. It was an evening I had looked forward to a month and a day before. Now Barbara, Chris, and I were scheduled to attend the event that Alison had been bound to win.
It was a big deal in Roanoke to be one of the local celebrities selected to compete in Dancing with the Valley Stars. With her typical gusto, Alison had been determined to win it. She was paired with Pedro Szalay, the artistic director of the Southwest Virginia Ballet in Roanoke. Pedro was a former company dancer with the Richmond Ballet and had been an instructor in their Minds in Motion movement program that Piedmont Arts had sponsored for thirteen years in Martinsville. It was an ingenious way to get kids to participate in dance/movement at an age when they were still unencumbered by self-consciousness. Alison was involved for three years, and because she was already in a private dance class, she excelled.
In her last year of eligibility, Minds in Motion did a themed program around a newspaper. Alison was cast as the star of the show and I was pressed into service as the offstage narrator. It was our first and only time together in a show, and I could only watch her from the wings. Consider it foreshadowing that she was the star of a show centered on journalism. In her first time in the spotlight, she demonstrated the fearlessness and perfection she would carry the rest of her life.
Alison and Pedro had decided on a tango combined with ballet. Alison was going to wear pointe shoes. She found the perfect costume on eBay, of all places, and I ordered it for her, a fiery red feathery thing. Shortly before the costume arrived, Alison happened to be in town and she asked me to take a photo of her in her ballet slippers.
“Hurry, Dad, because it’s been so long, I’m not sure how long I can hold it en pointe.” She pointed and unfurled her graceful arms to create a beautiful, athletic tableau. It was the last time I saw her in a dance position. I saw the costume when it arrived, but I never saw her in it.
As a tribute to Alison, Pedro asked one of his students to dance in Alison’s place at Dancing with the Valley Stars. She was of a similar build, and after a slight alteration, she wore Alison’s red costume.
The event was held at the Jefferson Center in the same space where the nondenominational memorial service took place less than a month earlier. Barbara and I took seats in the back; I knew what was ahead for me, and I wanted to position myself where I could make a hasty retreat into the foyer should the need arise. The event would have drawn the press anyway, but it drew even more due to the circumstances.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Blood and Oil by Bradley Hope(1461)
Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins(1280)
Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte by Kate Williams(1274)
Daniel Holmes: A Memoir From Malta's Prison: From a cage, on a rock, in a puddle... by Daniel Holmes(1250)
It Was All a Lie by Stuart Stevens;(1191)
Twelve Caesars by Mary Beard(1135)
The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch(1075)
What Really Happened: The Death of Hitler by Robert J. Hutchinson(1066)
London in the Twentieth Century by Jerry White(1046)
Time of the Magicians by Wolfram Eilenberger(1026)
Twilight of the Gods by Ian W. Toll(1020)
The Japanese by Christopher Harding(1017)
A Woman by Sibilla Aleramo(1000)
Cleopatra by Alberto Angela(993)
Lenin: A Biography by Robert Service(980)
The Devil You Know by Charles M. Blow(929)
Reading for Life by Philip Davis(927)
1965--The Most Revolutionary Year in Music by Andrew Grant Jackson(869)
The Life of William Faulkner by Carl Rollyson(866)
