Several weeks ago, Isaiah Daniels’ family reached out to me, and asking if I’d be willing to meet, explaining that he had not shared much of the things he and I had chatted about surrounding his time at Silverwood. Those chats came in the months following this post:
What I didn’t fully realize was that I was one of the very few people he had confided in–and in my case, it came in small bits, tentatively, over time, because he was still working on how he was going to tell his story. We discussed the idea of intentionally not writing about any of the events in third person–that is, only what he personally experienced or witnessed. We expected, from him telling his story, that others would then be ready to tell theirs. And we know this to be true, because we both had people reach out to us, individually, about this.
I didn’t know that I was one of the few he’d opened up to until I received a message from one of his close friends after his memorial service. [For those unfamiliar, he passed in January.] I hadn’t attended, because I frankly didn’t feel close enough to him (ironically), but also there was a level of guilt, not knowing whether I hadn’t messaged enough, or too much…or if our messages helped or made it worse for him emotionally and mentally.
So…we are meeting Monday to share information. Hopefully I can provide some answers and some solace to a grieving family, and perhaps we can, together, bring clarity to his story.
