Coyote TV - High Desert Advocate

    We often mark the past by events rather than dates.
    It is easier to remember the September when Sam started kindergarten, or the day Anna got her first bike than the exact spot on the calendar when it happened.
    Usually that kind of reminiscence is reserved for close family.
    It is a kind of short cut to history, but only for people who were intimately involved in the original event.
    For such a shortcut to be used for an entire city, the event either must be profoundly happy or profoundly sad.
    For us in Wendover this will always be the summer Luke Gregory died.
    Summers are made for 10-year-old boys. Too small to have any real responsibility or worry yet big enough not to need constant supervision, the world is their oyster. Being still relatively new to it, they explore it with the same drive as Columbus or Lewis and Clark.
    Exploring is not without danger. Anyone who was once 10 or who has boys can readily recall a brush with death or injury between breakfast and lunch on any given day.
    Most of the time these close calls go unreported to parents and are forgotten in the wake of the next thing to do on a wonderful summer day.
    And Luke was having a wonderful summer. He walked, ran and scootered in the simple joyful knowledge that all was right in this world and his place in it.
    Just to see him was to be happy and a little envious that this boy could find wonder at every new sunrise and delight in every sunset.
    And now he is gone.
    And now we are sad, for his parents, for his brother and for his family.
    We are sad for ourselves because we shall profoundly miss this boy.
    We will miss watching him grow up.
    We shall miss writing stories touting his athletic prowess.
    We shall miss his smile and the twinkle in his eyes.
    Most of all we shall miss watching him run.
    We count ourselves lucky to have seen him run.
    Luke Gregory ran for the sheer joy of running. If running won the game it was all the better. But even if it didn’t, the running was enough to rejoice in.
    And Luke rejoiced. With every breath he took with every stride he made he rejoiced.
    For that we are glad.
    We would like to think that everyone who knew him is glad too. When we recall this summer we will call it simply the summer of Luke.