Every time, I see his mom tear up and cry it breaks my heart because she misses her son and she has a daughter that doesn’t talk to her unless she (the daughter) needs her to watch the kids, which she’s always willing to do because those are her grand kids. He has seven more years of time to do and with each passing day, he grows stronger, more intelligent, more patient but I know he’s hurting inside. He doesn’t get the chance to watch his niece and nephew grow up, he doesn’t get to take care of his mother like he wants too, his step-dad probably won’t be around when he gets out or at least not for long there after, he doesn’t get to experience life during the “twenty somethings.”

He made a mistake, a horrible one at that. I believe he deserves to do his time, but I feel that he was wrongly sentenced…he’s doing more time than he should have to do. I mean, 13 years for “attempted first degree murder” having never been in trouble with the law before thus having no criminal record, and then to find out that there is another inmate in the same prison who was convicted of the same charge two years prior, is the same age as him, and even was convicted of two other charges and his earliest release date is seven years AFTER being in prison while his is elven? Why did they have to make an example out of him, I just don’t get it.

It hurts me because he’s my best friend, I’ve known him since I was fourteen and he’s the only person in my life who hasn’t come and gone…he’s still there and has always been there for me. It’s hard for me because I haven’t been in Kansas for the past seven years up until August when I moved back for school, thus I haven’t been able to be there for him like I”ve wanted to be. I haven’t done the best job in the time I lived in South Carolina communicating back and forth with him through letters, and I didn’t keep in touch with his mom even though I should have but for me it was easier to deal with it by NOT dealing with it. And now, I’m back and I expect him to be there and he’s not and it’s hard to not get the feeling of wanting to pick up the phone and see if he wants to go to movie or something.

He, honestly, is the best friend I’ve ever had and best friends and people you can truly trust are hard to come by. I am grateful for the friendship we have because it’s something I need, it’s something he needs. I’ve always felt in my heart that he wouldn’t do the entire 13 years, that he’d get out way sooner than that but I know I’m hurting myself by entertaining the thought, but I’ve always strongly felt that way. I hope that happens for his sake, for his mom’s sake, for his niece and nephew’s sake…they need him and he needs them, he made a mistake and he’s learned from it; he’s gone from a 19 year old boy to an intelligent, articulate young man…he’s using his time wisely and I just feel like what he’s been doing the last three years has to account for something, but what can I do? What is there to do? I don’t know, I don’t know where to start.

I’ll continue to visit him every other weekend and as often as I can. I’ll continue to be a support system and be there for him. I’ll continue to be the only friend he has aside from his mom and I’ll continue loving him and caring about him because he needs people in his life that do. Most of all, I’ll continue to pray that someone realizes that he shouldn’t be in there for the next seven years and he’ll do so much better on the outside; don’t get me wrong, I believe he deserves to do his time for the mistake he made, but I don’t believe it should be for as long as he got…

Tags: Barry, Friends, Friendship, Prison

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.