towerguy, Mr. Rowe:
Reading your post, I feel a bit "on the spot" in that I am just one person among hundreds here at Websleuths, and thousands in the community and nation and world, doing our best to try to understand... to try to bring order to something that is so disorderly in essence. The human instinct is to ask, "why?" Yet for your family, in the end there is no "why" to be understood, as you say, when it comes to crimes against love and life. There is only "is." This cannot be understood. I will never understand it. I can only see what is, and see the human outpouring from so many places in response to one missing girl, and refuse to lose faith in the innate goodness of the vast majority of people.
So many folks here at Websleuths, and in so many other places, have spent so much time and energy and heartache following the case, in hopes of somehow being of assistance in bringing home a daughter of our community. You give your thanks to the locals for keeping you informed, yet we did not sacrifice much; we only did what locals do when a neighbor is in need, as best we could. It is the people not in Lafayette who are so unbelievable - in faraway states and across oceans - who never knew Mickey, yet spent time learning everything they could about her case, in hopes of helping separate fact from fiction, providing outside eyes to point out things overlooked, and offering different points of view, all with the common goal of doing anything they could to help see your niece come home safely.
As Brettly said at the beginning, the power of social media is powerful indeed. The same double-edged sword of technology, which with one edge enables gossip and chaos, with the other became a tool to bring together a group of people who, together, through physical, mental and emotional searching, were able to gather an incredible array of resources from people from all walks of life to pursue a common goal.
I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that if sometimes our questing to ponder and discuss the imponderable was a source of worry or pain to the family, we understand and are truly sorry. It must have been so difficult for you, for three long months, to read the theories and discussion that ran the gamut from incisive, to obsessive, to sometimes insensitive, to empathetic. So disorienting to see the lives of your loved ones put under a microscope by people you didn't know from Adam. I can only hope that the underlying sense of care and prayer for your family came through to you as clearly as it has to me, having read some of the nicest sentiments expressed for your family that I have ever seen on the Internet from total strangers. As you and I both learned from reading, many here have lost loved ones, some in the same manner as your family, and I was humbled to see how many of them have chosen to be supportive of others, and a force for good.
It's funny, I was always convinced that at least one member of your family was reading. And actually I had an odd intuition early on that it might have been "towerguy." Something about the way you almost never posted, but occasionally clicked the "thanks" button during key points in the long journey, and stayed with it the whole way...of course that describes many here who have silently read, day after day and night after night. I'll just say that I don't know why, but for some reason I'm not surprised.
I'm glad that you feel you've reached a point where you can back away from your long vigil here. Your burden has been unique. Enduring endless nights of looking for something - anything - here that could possibly help your niece, picking up tips from the CajunNet community that the rest of your family may have missed, all the while reading things that sometimes were so mercilessly forensic, about someone you have known and loved for so long, has to have been such a painful testing of your soul and your strength, forborne out of great love for your family. Each of you has played his or her part, yours as the family watchman, accomplished with dedication and great strength.
Please accept my sincere condolence and deepest sympathy for the untimely passing of your niece into glory. Though I met her only once, briefly, coincidentally on a day when she bought a new bike and wheeled it into Charlie's workplace to show it off, she did seem to radiate happiness. The amazing effort by family, friends and the community at large confirm how much she was, and is, and always will be, loved. Something I hope you and the family will always remember is that your family did everything humanly possible for her. You rallied a community like nothing I have ever seen - stayed positive - and inspired others, as Winston Churchill once urged in England's darkest hour, to "Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, give up."
Your family never gave up. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever did. You set an example to follow for everyone who has ever lost someone, one which will always be an inspiration to families looking for a loved one.
So now she is coming home to you soon, and somewhere, in a better place, she is so very proud of you.
I'm sure that some of those reading would welcome the chance to tell you this in person.
Godspeed, sir. And please remember that you and your family are in everyone's prayers.
:grouphug:
