--part1_2c43fae8.244c03c5_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thought I would pass this on. It speaks for itself. --part1_2c43fae8.244c03c5_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from rly-yc04.mx.aol.com (rly-yc04.mail.aol.com [172.18.149.36]) by air-yc02.mail.aol.com (v59.4) with SMTP; Sun, 18 Apr 1999 23:37:48 -0400 Received: from bl-11.rootsweb.com (bl-11.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.27]) by rly-yc04.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id XAA19739; Sun, 18 Apr 1999 23:37:40 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from [email protected]) by bl-11.rootsweb.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id UAA16864; Sun, 18 Apr 1999 20:36:38 -0700 (PDT) Resent-Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 20:36:38 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <[email protected]> From: "Jean & Marc Partlow" <[email protected]> Old-To: <[email protected]> Subject: Thank God we survived the FHL shooting Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 20:22:26 -0700 Organization: Words 'n Stats X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211 Resent-Message-ID: <"LSfVE.A.VHE.FTqG3"@bl-11.rootsweb.com> Resent-From: [email protected] X-Mailing-List: <[email protected]> archive/latest/470 X-Loop: [email protected] To: [email protected] Precedence: list Errors-To: [email protected] Resent-Sender: [email protected] Reply-To: [email protected] Jean sent you a message last week that we were going to the Family History Library in SLC to do research. Thank God for the bravery and leadership of staff member John Beebe and others. I was less than twenty feet from the gunman when he started shooting. When they evacuated us from the first floor it was at least 45 minutes before they evacuated the second basement where Jean was locked in an office with other researchers and staff praying. You can imagine my fear and anxiety for that time. After an hour or so the police directed us across the street to Abravonal Hall, a concert hall where we could reunite with missing loved ones and group members. There were still 13 of our 40 member group from Orange County Calif Genealogical Society missing. Within half an hour of getting there local catering companies had hot lunch buffet tables set up and the staff members from the library where there serving us, perhaps 500 to a thousand, free food. they responded immediately to the need without thinking of the cost. Our group was asked to meet in the lobby and a very young, perhaps twenty, year old man with a badge that said LDS Services listened to our stories. There was little he could do other than get us the current information as best he could and to listen. In the library at the time of the crises there was no screaming of panic; under the leadership of Mr. Beebe we were evacuated safely and orderly. Of course people were terrefied, but everthing was orderly. That night at dinner the waitress overheard us talking and said she was spouse to one of the swat team in the crises. She gave us free desserts and said in this small way she could comfort us. Saturday morning when Jean and I went into the library to get our things it was very somber. As we left out the back door Jean was crying and a LDS staff lady came up to us and asked if there was anything she could do to help. The all were so kind and careing. For my part I'd like to point out that this kind of tragedy can happen at any time and any place when one is dealing with a mentally unstable person. As I have pieced together the stories of others present I realized how any one of us could have been harmed had Mr. Beebe not acted in his courageous manner. Today in the paper I read that he (and his wife) do not consider themselves heroes. The honor goes to God for giving him the strength to do what he did..He was shot at three times, once literally splitting the hair on his head. I choose to emphasize the strength of the human spirit that pulls people together in time of crises. I'm sure there were over a thousand people in the library when this occurred. This community, and especially those members of the LDS church were outstanding in their helpfulness to those in need. I am not Mormon, but want to give these people the credit they deserve. If it is in your tradition, I ask you to pray for those that have suffered loss or fear from this ordeal. I have spoken with several that do not intend to return to SLC again because of the fear. thank you for indulging my rambling and excuse my spelling. Marcus Partlow & Jean McCombs --part1_2c43fae8.244c03c5_boundary--