I'm going to post an e-mail my mom sent me. Usually we IM, but I guess she just needed to vent uninterrupted via an e-mail. Which is cool too. She's a very strong person, but I think this really hit home for her on a few different levels. A few years ago, I was very sick and lived alone and this could have been me. Somehow I managed to call 911 on a few occasions.

Here is her e-mail:

This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard a terrible screaming in the hallway for help. I went out and it was Lisa downstairs. She had just come back from staying with her daughter for four days and the newborn baby. She tried to open the front door and couldn't but saw a pool of blood. My phone was dead, it won't charge, I couldn't call 911 on her phone--it kept asking for an area code. I pounded on Fran's door and yelled at her to call 911. I tried to open the front door to see if he was conscious and when I called his name he didn't answer. I felt his back and it was cold. She kept asking if he was dead. I could only tell her he was not answering. She was hysterical sitting on the floor of the hall. I was able to get through to her daughter and tell her to come over immediately. Frank went by and I yelled to him to call 911 again. They finally, arrived and just took a look and we knew then that he really was dead. Then her daughter came with a three week old baby and everyone was hysterical. Then more police arrived and tried to get statements. Lisa's sister arrived and took charge. She works at Wuesthoff and talked to the police and took the baby in her arms. A very strong person. When I finally left to go to work there were three police cars, a huge fire truck, police and a photographer. They were able to enter through the sliding glass doors to see what was going on but none of us went in. No one seems to know what happened. I assume they took him out through the sliding glass doors. It was very traumatic. An experience I would not like to have again.

She also found out that dialing a 9 only on your cell phone WILL NOT call 911. The man is younger than her, they are in their 50's, and Mom is going to be 70 soon.

As of today we still don't know what happened to him, his obit just ran yesterday. It's a small town in many ways so I guess we will find out soon.