This week is the week that my cousin/sister/best friend would have turned 36 years old. He life was ended 13 1/2 years ago by a man who decide that if he couldnt have her then nobody would have her.

She was moving back home. Back to her family. She only had two more months left before she and her mother were leaving and would be back home where they belonged. She told this man that she would be leaving and no he wasnt coming with her. He left her bed in the wee hours of the morning to walk several blocks to his home that he shared with his mother. Loaded the guy that was in the home. Walked back several blocks to find her still sound asleep in her bed and her mother still sound asleep in hers. He walked into Neva's room placed a pillow lightly over her head. Grabbed another pillow and with his hand not holding the gun sandwiched the offending hand between the two and shot her.

Not a sound. Not a stir. No one was disturbed from their slumber.

Back to his home gun hidden in his pocket. His mother found him shortly there after sitting there staring into nothing. She asked him what was wrong. He told her. She called the police and an ambulance sending them to the home of my cousin and my aunt. My aunt woke to the door being pounded upon not knowing anything was wrong. They asked her where Neva was and she told them. As she protested that she was sleeping as one officer went to check another held her back to try to explain to her what had happened and why they were there. The ambulance arrives as my aunt broke free proclaiming that she was ok nothing was wrong with Neva she was just sleeping. The pool of blood where her head rested left no doubt as to what had happened and she was in deed gone.

He took her life because he didnt want to live without her. He took her life and now we all have to live without her forever.

His punishment for snuffing out the light of a 22 year old woman....17 years. It was found to not be premeditated and a crime of passion. I dont know but when he had to plan to leave while everyone was sleeping, plan to walk several blocks to his own home, plan to load that gun, plan to walk several blocks back, and plan how to muffle most all of the noise from the gun.....that is premeditated. His sentence was so lenient because his IQ was lower then normal. Lower then normal, high enough to know right from wrong, high enough to plan a murder, and high enough to kill another human being, just not high enough to suffer the consequences that someone with a "normal" IQ would pay.

We were one year apart. We were best friends. Neva, her older sister, and I were inseparable for most all of our childhood. The song "We are Family" by Sister Sledge was our song and our motto. Forever I will love her. Forever she will be etched upon my skin. Forever she will be a part of my heart that will never be able to heal.