The Palatine Curse

so there it is.. there in writing.. I've come to the conclusion (years ago) that those of us growing up in Palatine are cursed... somehow someway there is a curse.. the worst things in life have happened to those of us who grew up there.. a quiet little town where nobody ever locks their doors has turned inside out and became a place of murder amongst other horrible things... I'm guessing that for me the start of the Brown's Chicken murder trials this week is bringing up all these memories and emotions... we started with the Browns Chicken murder those days surrounding that still haunt me... the wakes the funerals, the emotions.. the silence that followed those days... , then we had a guy who at 16 years old had a heart attack and fell off the shelf in the gym.. we could hear another gym teacher doing CPR over her little microphone... then we had Connie's murder... funny how her murder was exactly as her mother had described a possible murder in a house they lived in in Arlington Hts when she was first married to Connie's father... the ghosts still had a daily revisit that murder, the red stain at the foot of the stairs her mother tried over and over to get out and eventually gave up... her wake was surreal, her widow's peak wasn't in the middle as it always had been, but now off to one side... something I'll never forget. Nicole.. one of my greatest friends in jr high and h.s. one of the people who really helped me through some tough spots in my life.. I can still remember the way she laughed, her perfectly white straight teeth (even though she never had braces), the days she had so much eye make up on that little black sleeper creepers would be in the corners of her eyes, the way she would pass my locker and give me the evil stare on days that we were fighting... the day we sat in her kitchen writing poems together... and her daughter Jade.. born 1 month early very very tiny.. she was like a little doll.. but perfectly healthy.. I want to say she was under 5lbs the day I met her... she had the longest most perfect eyelashes.. and as she got older she'd come and give you kisses and hugs even if she didn't know you.. she loved life, and she loved to simply love... her casket so tiny, her body as if she just layed down to nap, her hair perfect, her eyelashes still long, thick, and curly.. Jade would have turned 9 this Sunday (April 15th, I always teased Nicole for giving birth on tax day).. and Nicole.. just didn't even look like herself.. it still isn't something that has fully registered.. there is no grave markers for them, it's not written in stone.. as if I still think the phone will ring and she'll ask me why I haven't called her in so long... and the stories don't end there.. Karl, killing his mother.. as he was shown on the news he had a similar appearance to my husband Tim.. weird how I only dated Karl for a very short time.. makes me wonder what would have been different in my life.. and now if you search for Karl.. the story is gone.. no traces of him anywhere.. I've googled and looked on the Illinois prison lists.. he's gone.. vanished.. does that mean he killed himself? does that mean he wound up in a mental institution? Along with those major ones that effected me personally are many other stories.. really sad stories filled with tragic scenarios most of which were situations out of control of the person they happened to.. not anything they brought on.. some genetics/health related.. some being in the wrong place at the wrong time.. so here we stand always waiting for that ball to drop, good days always lined in the thought that bad news will be there waiting tomorrow...