Senseless things....

We have an ex student who was killed in a hunting accident.

I opened an account for his Mom yesterday at the bank to help defray funeral costs and yesterday I went to the house expecting to just leave a message for her. She came to the door. It was so hard for me to look in her eyes knowing what she must be feeling. I have always had respect for her because I could identify with her. I know she has been a single mom most of her life...I know she struggles financially....I know she loves her boys and is so proud of them.

There are just no words that give any kind of comfort.

I remember Justin as quite the "stud about campus"....he was funny and obnoxious and cocky in the way that highschool boys are. His "brother", AJ was my buddy. When I advertised for a babysitter for Landry, AJ applied. (I'm sure that this had nothing to do with the fact he had a raging crush on me.) There was just something funny about this 200 plus pound football machine applying to be my babysitter. AJ was a really good kid in need of a mom and Justin's mom, Stacy, took him in and raised him like her own. Shortly after AJ graduated he got some "mystery disease" that left him wheelchair bound. She was right there with him every step of the way and he still lives with her today. Now THAT is a mother.

So unfair that her oldest son is gone. SO, SO, unfair!!

Here is a copy of the article that was in the newspaper about him.

Town mourns Lytle, 21
By PAUL A. ANTHONY September 14, 2006
CHRISTOVAL - Justin Lytle is still here, still will be here. In the pictures that line the high school halls. On the back of his little brother's jersey Friday night.
His picture hangs above a row of lockers in the high school's main hallway, his face framed by a close-cropped head of hair and long sideburns, his gaze slightly off-camera, his smile half-visible. It's now a smile that can only be seen in pictures.

''We have our seniors of each year in frames in the hallway,'' said Christoval High School special-ed teacher Conie Eisenbach, stopping as her voice broke and quavered, ''and you'd catch a kid (Wednesday) looking at his picture.''
A stunned and saddened Christoval High School Wednesday mourned the 21-year-old Lytle's death after what police described as a tragic hunting accident Tuesday night.
The school's homecoming pep rally, scheduled for Wed-nesday night, was postponed, and a massive mound of wood lay behind the school building, unburned for at least one more day out of respect for an alumnus even the youngest of students knew.
Lytle - a 2003 graduate of the high school, where he was the star running back as a senior - was dove hunting with friends in a field along Christoval Road in San Angelo, police said, when one of the friends accidentally shot him.
Lytle died about 7 p.m. Tuesday, city police spokes-man Lt. Curtis Milbourn said. According to police reports, the friend accidentally shot Lytle when he aimed for and fired at a flock of doves from the back seat of a golf cart at the same time Lytle stood in the front seat to fire at the same flock.
Three other friends also were present, Milbourn said.
News of Lytle's death shocked his family and friends - and the friends of his younger brother, Jacob, the football team's starting quarterback.
Lytle had visited the team just hours before his death Tuesday to watch his brother practice.
''I didn't believe it when somebody called me'' with the news, said Grant Hallman, a senior offensive guard/defensive tackle. ''I just saw him at practice.''
Jacob Lytle will wear his brother's No. 21 in Friday's game at home against Roscoe, Hallman said, and the varsity and junior varsity football teams skipped fourth-period classes Wednesday to visit the Lytle family and lend their support.
''We all just told them how we felt for him,'' said senior Ricky Rios. ''It's a shame to have lost him. He was a good guy all the way.''
''We're investigating the incident,'' Milbourn said, ''though there's nothing that would make us believe this was anything but an accident.''
Funeral arrangements for Lytle are pending at Johnson's Funeral Home in San Angelo.
Lytle was one of three sons - plus a fourth unofficially adopted friend - raised alone by mother Staci Brazeal. The boys and their mom were close, Brazeal said, and the boys were close to each other.
''He was a good kid,'' she said, wiping away tears at her Christoval home. ''He was a great kid. Full of life.''
The fourth boy, A.J. Wallace, moved in with the family during his sophomore year in high school, and he and Lytle were roommates at Angelo State University until Wallace developed a neurological disorder that left him in a wheelchair.
Still, Wallace said, Lytle took care of him.
''I looked up to him,'' he said. ''It just seemed he was always there.''