When Good Friends go Bad...

I've had many months to digest this one... and I'm still not sure what I think of the whole thing.

In July, a man in my city was arrested for attempted murder when he stabbed his pregnant girlfriend repeatedly in the stomach with a sword. I woke up that morning with the news on my clock radio. Later in the day, someone said that he used to work with us. My employer is the largest private employer in Nova Scotia so that doesn't always mean that we know someone who has worked there. It wasn't until someone showed me his picture on the front page, that I realized that I not only knew him but have considered him a close friend not so many years ago.

Alan and I sat next to each other for over a year at work. We were promoted together twice. We attended many weeks of training together. We hung out outside of work. He spent time in my home and I spent time in his home. Conversations were always deep, lacking the everyday superficiality to which we are so accustomed.

The man I knew, shared his childhood home with a stray cat that just started to live with him one day. He worried about his niece and the lack of a male role model in her life. He loved plants and gardening, especially a wild garden that took on it's own form. He was an artist of many different forms. He loved music and playing his guitar. He had a dark side but it always seemed that he knew his demons and had outlets for them.

When Alan left our employer, I kept track of him for a while but we lost touch as time went by. He still remained present on my MSN list but didn't message very often until a few weeks before the incident that has changed his life. Cory had a nice conversation over MSN with him where he told Cory that his life was going really well. That he had had some rough spots lately but now things were looking up.

Looking at his face on the front page of the paper, was shocking to say the least. The only explanation I could come up with was that he clearly had completely snapped but then he was found fit to stand trial. Today he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. I have a hard time reconciling the man I knew with the man who could do this horrific act. I don't know how to make this person match with the memory and I doubt that I ever will.