I am exhausted. I was up with a sick Little Brother last night. I was hoping for a good nights sleep as I was already exhausted due to the events of the day. But I can not complain as I was here and able to be up with my son.
Yesterday started as a mostly normal day. I had kept Big Brother home from school as he was sick Tobei was at the doctors as he was also sick. I had gone outside for a smoke and loaded up twitter. I clicked on my saved search of #ottnews and that is when everything changed.
Soldier shot at War Memorial. Shots fired at Parliament Hill. WTH just 2 days before we had lost a solder to an attack outside Montreal. Now here it was happening in my city. I wasn’t stupid. This was a terrorist attack by a lone wolf as they call them.
I stood up and went to come in the house to grab my keys and go get Big Brother from school, then I remembered he was already home and I sat back down. OMG Tobei! I send him a text and don’t get a reply. I load up the locator on my phone and see that he is at the doctors. I get a call from him about 10 minutes later, he is on his way home. I sat impatiently waiting until he walked in the door.
Downtown was on lock down until 6pm. Shortly after it was lifted it was locked down again.
The soldier shot at the War Memorial is Cpl. Cirillo. Single father raising a little boy all on his own. News releases that he did not make it. My heart is broken. He was on Sentry duty at the War Memorial. Guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier. It is an honour to perform that job. He was killed just doing his job, something he was honoured to do. No reason, a target solely because he wears the uniform of the Canadian soldier. RIP Cpl. Cirillo you will not be forgotten.
The shooter was killed in the halls of Parliament Hill. Taken down by the hero of the day Sgt.-at-Arms Kevin Vickers. He saved the lives of so many people yesterday. I hope the shooter rots in hell. He has a name but it will never come across my lips. He does not deserve the mention.
Today is a new day and it is so different. My city feels different. My emotions feel different and I am in mama bear mode. I kept my son home from school today. I don’t care what people say. I want my family near me. If I could have kept Tobei home I would have.
I went through so many emotions yesterday. I wanted to blog to let it all out yesterday but could not put enough words together to make a proper sentence. In a way I am glad I waited since this is a much more toned down and coherent version than what would have appeared yesterday.