Another nephew for Carla and I

Daniel Maurice Collins, Bergen, Norway

Felix's Friend

Felix's good friend Josephina is a student in his class who is in the METCO program and lives in
Dorchester. Her brother Johnny, whom Felix and I have met, was shot
and killed on Saturday afternoon.

We have gotten to know Josephina's mother, grandmother and sister over
the course of the school year. Felix has visited their home in
Dorchester.

I am not sure what else to day. This has totally shaken our world. It is so hard to comprehend that our children know someone who has been shot to death.

The service will be this Saturday. We are still working out whether Felix will attend - it depends on what Josephina's mother plans for her to do.

Believe it or not, Josephina's father died when she was two of complications from diabetes. This is so much more than a seven year old daughter or a single mother should ever have to bear.

Here is some more information:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/25/18_year_old_is_shot_killed_in_roxbury/

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2009_04_29_Slain_teen_was_athlete__loving_son/srvc=home&position=6

MMB in the Lakeville Journal

Here's what the paper had to say on the subject of Malcolm's second retirement.

Weekend update 4/18

We enjoyed Thaddeus and Alexis visit on the weekend in Houston.

Update on Vicky: She returned home from the hospital last Thursday. She will have to wear a brace for six weeks to protect her back when she is sitting up or walking. The first few days she was at home her sister Alida came to help. Paul, still "on vacation" was busy. Vicky had many visitors and well-wishers. The refrigerator was full and the living room was ablaze with flowers. Vicky was amazingly cheerful on painkillers but suffering from a let-down when there was a delay in taking them. Now that Paul has returned to work a caretaker is there to take care of Vicky and do routine household chores. She is a woman in her early twenties who works as a beautician and does hair and manicures, good for the morale. Vicky has received photos of daughter Melissa's wedding that she was packing for when she fell through the attic floor. The recuperation is going to be lengthy but Vicky says she feels a bit better every day.

also great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN0XWcj_L6o
too bad you can't really hear the bass, but still...

check this out

Its great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

WE ARE SO BRILLIANT!

I had forgotten how good it really was. "Well, I guess I could do a cheek swab...."

Mean Transponder Joke

This is what happens to you when, as a kind hearted parent, you lend an E-Z pass transponder to offspring, who merrily place it on another car without notice, and then drive through a toll plaza in Massachussets.

Then, they feed into your paranoia over legal procedures by fabricating the attached letter and giving it out as a Christmas present. I turned pale and would not rise from my chair for 45 minutes! Malcolm

DEAR DKA

Would you admit to your organization a miserable victim of a Ford 150 truck that stops at the side of a major Houston thorofare with no indication that it is stopped and lures me to smash into it while cruising along within the speed limit in my BMW 530i? Granted the 150 did not attack me in the manner Malcolm has become accustomed to be accosted both by the living and the metallic, but yet an organization of your obvious empathy for the stricken might engage your faithful to pray for me with ineffable fervor that i may never again be so attacked.

Yours in prostration,

Charlie

Catherine

There are no words to adequately express how sad it is that Catherine should die at such a young age leaving her husband and 2 children. One can only hope that with time, emptiness will heal and their lives will improve somehow.
Malcolm

Deer Killers Anonymous

In response to popular demand, attached is the original Deer Killers Anonymous Policy offered to me (Malcolm Brown). I believe this occurred after 3 deer attacked my car in the 1990's on Rte 41 in Massachussets. This winter, in dark and hungry times in January and February, a total of 4 deer hit both of our cars on three occasions. I was always driving, and the deer were really hungry, and just running all over. I do not speed! Thank heavens for comprehensive insurance.

If that were not enough, my Subaru was then struck in a 3 car accident in Millerton when car number 1 took an unexpected left turn, struck car #2 which was in the opposite lane, going in the other direction at 30-35 miles per hour. Car #2 then spun and skidded accross the highway and struck me (I was unsuccessfully try to avoid all this). I guess I am basically greatful to be walking, talking, and not brain-dead. MMB