Day 314/365

     As I said in day 313's post, I got to spend the past weekend at home in Cleveland. I got to have a much needed lazy day with my family on Sunday/day 314, which meant falling asleep on the living room couch while watching a movie. It wouldn't be complete without the best nap buddy in the world: our family dog Pete. Pete's almost ten years old, which I still find hard to believe. He's the sweetest dog on this face of the planet. Just look at that face!

Day 306/365

     After what turned into a bit of a hectic week, this weekend was pretty quiet. It was a nice reprieve, albeit a pretty sudden change that was a bit hard to adjust to. I had to work for an hour or two on Saturday/day 306 for a Friday assignment that got pushed back with Jessica Schwerin's homecoming taking up most of my time Friday afternoon.

     

     The assignment I rescheduled was on a family that luckily averted what could've been a major tragedy. The Bittner family had their neighbors, the Childs family, over to play pool in their basement and one of the neighbors noticed the smell of gas. This lead to the realization that there was a gas leak in the home, and the Bittner family was advised to evacuate and stayed the night at the Childs residence.

Day 304/365 - Part 2

     Like I said in the first part of today's post; today started off normal enough. Then, excuse the language, the shit hit the proverbial fan as far as breaking news stories go. Hang tight, folks, this one's going to take a bit to explain. Stick with me here. 

     Around 9:30 pm Wednesday night, January 16, a female Central Michigan University student was leaving the student gym and walking out to her car. Eric Ramsey, a thirty-something year-old man, held the girl at gunpoint and kidnapped her in her own vehicle. He then took her to his house, bound her, and raped her. He then loaded her back in her car, placed some cans of gasoline in the car, and took off with her again. As he was driving, he told her he was going to kill her. She fought. She managed to jump out of the car as it was moving, and ran away towards the closest house she could see.

     The Mount Pleasant area, where this took place, is pretty rural. Other than an indian reservation and the CMU campus, it's a bunch of corn fields. So the fact that this girl happened to jump out in the near vicinity of a house is extremely lucky, but not as lucky as what happens next.

     The girl ran to the front door of the house, pounded on it, screaming for help and that a man was trying to kill her. During this time, Jim Persyn Jr. was on his way to pick his fiancé, Tiffany Ramon, up from work. Since Persyn only had about a fifteen minute roundtrip to pick Tiffany up, their children were left home alone. Their children being their 14 year-old son James, their 11 year-old daughter Acelin, and their 2 year-old son Angus. It was the Persyn residence that the CMU girl ran up to.

     James heard her screaming, opened the door and let her in. When she told him a man was after her and trying to kill her, James locked the front door. He then grabbed his hunting knife,  got the girl, his siblings, and the family dog and had all of them go into the bathroom at the back of the house and they barricaded themselves in. Since the bathroom door didn't have a lock, James made sure to sit closest to it with his knife. As this is happening, Eric Ramsey has realized where the girl has gone and is banging on the front of the house yelling to let him in. James had the girl use his phone to call 911, and then James called his dad to tell him that someone was trying to get into the house.

     When Ramsey couldn't knock the front door down, he tried to light the house on fire with the gasoline he had put in the trunk of the girl's car. Luckily Ramsey was unsuccessful, and left the area. The children's parents rushed home and were able to put out any flames Ramsey had managed to start, and the police arrived. After crashing into a state trooper, stealing a sanitation truck, and then crashing into two other state troopers over the span of three other counties, Eric Ramsey was shot and killed.

     James Persyn III, a fourteen year-old boy, had the presence of mind and a level enough head to save not only the rape victim, but protect his younger siblings as well. I have never been in awe of anyone before, but I was today when I had the honor of meeting the Persyn family and taking their pictures as they were interviewed by an MLive reporter. I was also heartbroken, as it was easy enough to see how scared both James and Acelin were, but they were calm in spite of the shocking events they had been witness to. 

     Today, I met a fourteen year-old hero.

Day 300/365

     Yesterday/day 300 was a good one. I went back down to Ann Arbor and got to see how Jessica and her donor Brian were doing. Brian said he was almost back to 100%, just moving a bit slow and taking it easy for the most part. Jessica was asleep for almost the entire time I was there, which is understandable given everything she's been through these past few days. It was pretty easy to sense how different the mood was with her family though; her mother Stacey was so much more relieved and just so happy. She stopped herself from hugging Brian when he first walked in because she didn't trust herself not to hug him too tight and hurt him. It was a great moment to witness all the same. I got to write the update that went with the other photos I took, and if you like you can find them on MLive here. 

Day 281/365

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you a safe and happy holiday, and a wonderful new year!

Day 279/365

     Today my mom got some of our younger cousins over for our yearly holiday baking/crafting binge. My cousin's two daughters are the cutest kids, I swear, and they are so much fun to have over. We made tons of cookies/cupcakes/and other desserts, and had a great time doing so. 

Day 278/365

     Yesterday/day 278 was the O'Donnell family, (my mom's side of my family), Christmas party. With the exception of a few of a few cousins, almost all of us were able to make it this year. There's so many of us that all of us getting together at the same time and sam place doesn't happen all that often. 

     

     I had an idea to make them all Christmas ornaments this year, (my mom and her seven siblings), using a photo of all of them together on Christmas morning when they were children. I love this picture of all of them; I think it shows each of their personalities so well. And the ornaments seemed to be a hit!

Day 275/365

     Today I got to shoot and write a pretty bittersweet assignment. (If you'd like to see my other photos, I read the short writeup I did, you can find it on MLive here). It was a last minute one, and all I was told was that a group of ladies from the Red Hat Society were visiting a friend of theirs in the hospital. When I drove to the hospital and actually met the woman, Linda, who was getting the visit, I found out that she was in the hospital from being in a serious car accident a few weeks ago that killed her husband. 

     When her friends walked in and each one of them walked up to her, hugged her, and told her how much they loved her and were there for her, it was truly touching. It was easy to see how much she'd missed them, (she was in I.C.U. until last week so her only visitor has been her daughter), and how much them being there helped her. It made me think of when I came back home after finding out my dad had passed away, and how much having my family and friends there as soon as I walked in the door really and truly helped me get through everything. 

It's really amazing how much human beings can do for each other just by simply being there.

Day 265/365

     Sunday/day 265 was spent paying homage to my dad. My dad would've turned 60 December 12 of this year/yesterday, so when my family was together this Sunday we celebrated it together. We had his favorites for dinner: my mom's lasagna, boston cream pie for dessert, and beer throughout the entire day. Halloween through Christmas have been hard and a bit surreal without him, and he's missed by us and so many of his friends and family every day. So Sunday was for him. 

Day 264/365

     Saturday's/day 264's post is a bit of a cop-out, I'll admit, but it's a pretty good representation of my day. I spent the day with good friends and great family, ending it with going through old family photos with my mom and some of my relatives on her side of the family. This is a photo of my mom's mother. I haven't seen very many pictures of her when she was younger, and rarely ever any candid ones, so I really loved this picture of her. As soon as I get settled into my new apartment I plan on scanning it in so I have a better copy of it.

Day 248/365

     I got to spend yesterday/day 248/Thanksgiving back in Ohio, (for the most part at least). At 22 years-old I've never missed Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house, and while I would've understood if I had to work yesterday, (since Black 'Friday' seems to start much earlier than Friday each year, and I am, in fact, an intern), I definitely would've been a bit disappointed. Anyways, I was able to have dinner with my family before driving back up to Michigan. My shift for Black Friday coverage was supposed to start early this morning, but I ended up getting some shots in earlier... when it was still Thanksgiving Day. I'm sure it's pointless to hope for, but I'm sincerely hoping that the shopping on Thanksgiving is just a trend that dies out. There's nothing I'd ever want to buy so badly that I'd skip out on spending the holiday with my family to do so.

Day 76/365

     My brother graduated from high school today! I can't believe it; four years ago I was doing the same! So much has changed over the past four years, some for the better and some for the worse. Despite everything that's changed though: my mom, brother, and I have stayed close and gotten through it all together. Ryan and I have talked about our dad a good deal the past few days, and while he was sorely missed today as he always will be, it's pretty clear that he'd be immensely proud of the young man his son's turning out to be. Congratulations, Ryan! 

Day 14/365

     For entry fourteen I got my mom and brother involved, much to their dismay. I wanted to do a triptych of our portraits in order to see what similarities there were in our facial features. This idea first came to mind when I went into work with my mother this past week and a coworker commented on how much she thought I looked like my mom. My brother and I have always gotten varied opinions when it comes to which of our parents we look like more, if at all. Everything from looking just like our dad or just like our mom, to looking like a complete blend between the two, or not looking like either of them; my brother and I have heard it all. Personally, I tend to think Ryan looks more like our mom, (same eyes, same mouth), and I look more like our dad. I've always thought that looking and comparing people who are related to each other and seeing the traits they share to be interesting.