Hank was called to Schenectady on the third of February, and on the fourth of February, Pat called, hysterically shouting over the phone that Jim had been shot. Then she simply hung up. Forty–five minutes later, while Maureen was throwing some things in a suitcase for herself and Dan, Phil called to say that Pat had gone into labor and was in the Parkland Hospital. Dan, Maureen, and Fran caught the next plane to Dallas.
It worked out that Pat and Jim were both at the same hospital. Dan, Maureen, and Fran walked in and approached the information desk. Dan inquired as to the condition of James Murray, specifying that Jim was his son–in–law. The woman at the desk called surgery to confirm that James Murray was in stable condition. She could not give them any further details except that he was now in the ICU. If they went to the waiting room there, they could probably get more information from that desk.
Then Dan asked about his daughter, Pat Murray, and the woman at information said, “Oh, my, that was such a shame that she had to come in to see him that way in her condition.” She looked in her file and said, “She’s in the delivery section of maternity. If you’re immediate family, you may go up to her room.”
The three of them rushed to maternity, to birthing room 509. But before going in, they went to the nurse at the desk, who was very forthcoming about Pat’s condition. She told them that her labor pains had been triggered by the sight of her husband on his way into surgery, and she’d been sent to maternity almost immediately. She told them the pains were still quite strong but very irregular, and they couldn’t seem to calm her enough to slow them down.
The nurse commented that this tragic shooting was putting a great deal of stress not only on Pat, but on the baby as well. She added that she was glad they were there, because no one had been able to console Pat. They had given her something to sedate her, but they didn’t want to put her or the baby at risk with too much medication. She suggested that someone in the family should try to calm her, and if they could do that, it might be possible the labor pains would abate because, so far, her water had not broken.
When the three of them walked into the birthing room, Pat held out her arms, burst into tears, and cried, “Daddy!” She seemed inconsolable. Dan leaned down and gave her a hug, reached for her arms that were clinging to him, and stroked her hands gently.
He said softly, “Pat, Jim is out of surgery and doing just fine. If you don’t settle down, they won’t be able to let you go down to see him. Please, sweetie, you’ve got to get hold of yourself. The doctor said your behavior has brought on those labor pains you’re having. You don’t want to have your baby right now, do you? Not when Jim is going to need your moral support. Please, sweetie, I’m told that if you settle down, those labor pains could go away and you could go home.”
“But Daddy, you don’t understand. Someone almost killed my Jim!” she wailed. Then she cried, “My Jim, who wouldn’t hurt anyone!” She looked at Dan with hate in her eyes and said, “I could kill him. I hate him.”
“Stop that, Pat.” Dan’s voice was calm but firm. “I don’t want to hear you talk like that. You keep it up, and Jim will end up going home before you do. You’re causing your baby a great deal of stress. I hope you understand that.” He began to stroke her cheeks and massage her temples very gently. “Now please take deep breaths and try to relax. “
Pat did as he asked.
“That’s a good girl. Now, instead of being full of hatred and rage, why don’t you thank God for your blessings? Jim is doing well, and soon you’ll have a beautiful baby boy. Jim is out of danger, and it’s a beautiful day out there, just filled with sunshine.”
Pat looked up at her father with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know what I would do without him, Daddy,” she said. “He is such a sweet, wonderful man.”
“I know that, darling. But you also have to think about that wonderful baby boy you’re going to give birth to.” He continued to massage her temples. “The doctor said the labor pains were caused by your reaction to the news about Jim, and no one can blame you for that. But if you settle down, breathe deeply, and think positive thoughts, you can slow your system down, and your baby will be born at his proper time. And you’ll be able to devote this time right now to helping Jim heal. Just think. If you do that, your baby will be born next month, and he’ll have both a mom and dad to love and hold him.”
Pat began to laugh quietly. “You really are determined that this baby is going to be a boy, aren’t you, Dad? Well, guess what? I know what he or she is going to be, and I’m not telling.”
“Just hearing you laugh is worth the news that it will be a girl, sweetie. Now I’m going to see Jim, and when I come back, I’ll give you nothing but good news. And I expect the nurse to tell me those labor pains have begun to subside. Right?”
He got no response. Pat had closed her eyes and was asleep.
Dan was directed to the third floor, room 318. There, a nurse informed him that Jim had been moved from the Intensive Care Unit to Intermediate Care.
Dan said he wasn’t sure what that meant, and the nurse smiled. She said, “It means, sir, that Mr. Murray has improved tremendously in the last eight hours, and they’re getting ready to move him to a private room. As a matter of fact, he may already be there. Let me check.”
Dan was elated to hear that, and he was directed to the fourth floor, where he found Phil and Ken in a small sitting room by the elevator. Ken said they were waiting to go into his room as soon as they were permitted. They weren’t family.
When Dan walked into Room 405, he found Frank and Laura standing at Jim’s bedside. They all talked in whispers. Jim’s coloring was good, but he was still groggy and in and out of consciousness. Frank was wiping Jim’s face with a cold cloth and suddenly began to sob. “He’s such a good person. This shouldn’t have happened to him. But I’m so grateful he’s okay.”
“What actually happened?” Dan asked.
Frank wiped his tears and said, “I don’t know for sure. I just know bits and pieces. From what I’ve gathered, this malcontent came in to threaten the foreman for firing him the day before. He had a gun in his hand and was demanding that the foreman come off the floor and into the office to talk to him. A group of five people were standing there with their hands up when Jim walked in, which startled him. He turned and shot wildly. That’s all I know about that. I talked to the doctor and he said that when Jim was brought in, he had lost a lot of blood, but he was conscious, and the first thing he said to me was, “I hope they didn’t shoot that fella. He didn’t mean to shoot me. I startled him when I walked into that room full of hostages. I must have walked in right after he took them. I had no idea that was going on.”
Just then, Jim opened his eyes. “Hi, Dad, Dan, Laura. Where’s Pat?” His lips were parched, and Frank gave him some ice chips.
Dan spoke. “Jim, it’s so good to see you’re doing so well. Unfortunately, this tragic turn of events really set her off. She’s upstairs in maternity. The doctor has her medicated, and it’s possible she’ll be able to go home if she calms down. I guess she held herself together until she got to the hospital and saw you on the gurney on your way to surgery. By that time, you were unconscious, and she just seemed to fall apart. That’s when they took her upstairs to delivery. But rest easy, Jim; she’s doing fine. I expect that she’ll be down to see you tomorrow.”
“That didn’t affect the baby, did it?” It was obvious he was upset.
“I didn’t mean to upset you, Jim. You did ask, and I wanted you to know the facts. But the facts are all turning out to be good. When I left her, she was sound asleep. As far as I know, the baby is just fine.” Dan continued, “Don’t worry, Jim, she’ll be down to see you, I guarantee you.”
“Would it be all right if I went up to see her?” Laura asked.
“I’m sure she would love to see you, Laura. But I don’t know whether you’re allowed in. They sure do have a lot of rules around here. Poor Phil and Ken have been sitting out there for hours, ever since they heard the news on the radio. They can’t come in because they’re not family.”
Jim heard that and said, “Why don’t you all leave for about half an hour or so and go down for coffee. I’d like my two friends to come in to see me so they can go home. Phil is still recovering from his ordeal last August. The doctors tell him it will be a year before he’s strong enough to go back to spend a full day at work.”
“Sure, son,” Frank said. “But don’t let them tire you too much.”
“I won’t, Dad. And they’ll let you in any time. I sure am grateful you all came down.”
Frank and Laura leaned down and kissed him. Dan walked over and shook his hand. He said, “See you later, Jimbo.” He gave him a wink. The three of them left. Frank told the nurse at the desk that Jim needed to see the two gentlemen sitting by the elevator. He made it quite clear that she should not deny Jim’s request because it would be an important part of his recovery.
They all went to tell Phil and Ken that Jim was awake and alert and wanted to see them.
The two jumped up, but before they headed for Jim’s room, they asked about Pat.
Dan explained the situation, and they asked him to tell her they were asking about her and that they would take care of Jim if she would take care of that baby. Ken said, “We can’t wait to be uncles.”
Pat was sitting up and her old self the next day, because the doctor had told her she could go down to see Jim, but only if she went in a wheelchair. When Fran pushed Pat into the room, she could hardly believe he was sitting up getting a shave. She acted as though he would break if she touched him, so she took his hand and kissed it over and over again.
Doctor McDonough felt it would be best if Pat remained in the hospital another day, so she was able to see Jim one more time. This time, she didn’t think he would break. But when she went home, the doctor gave strict orders that she was to stay there and on bed rest for two weeks. He said, “We’ll take care that Jim is all right. I don’t want you to be getting upset about a thing, young lady. I want to see you in one month, when that little one is fully ready to come out and visit us.”
Dan and Maureen had their former bedroom. Frank and Laura took the other bedroom, and Fran slept with Pat in the king–sized bed. Frank and Laura spent their days with Jim. Dan and Maureen split their time between Pat and visiting Jim, and Fran spent all her time with Pat. Phil and Ken stopped by often, and Bo became a regular for a while.
Fran was missing Hank terribly, but she valued Bo’s visits so much. She asked him how he and Wanda were faring. She said, “Gosh, I just realized I haven’t talked to her since Christmas. She told me what a great guy she thought you were.”
“Well, unfortunately, we came to a parting of the ways. She’s a great gal, and we really did seem to click. Problem is, I live in Dallas, and she lives in Silver Springs, and she told me she has no intention of ever leaving. I begged her to come down to visit, but it seems she has kind of a hankerin’ for a guy named Greg. Do you happen to know the guy?”
“Yes, I do. He’s a great guy. They’ve been going together off and on for the past three years. I didn’t know she felt that strongly about him.”
“Well, I guess when he got wind of me, he showed up on her doorstep and proposed. Your friend Wanda will be calling you soon. She and I kept in contact for a while, but all of this has happened since you’ve last been down here.”
Fran invited Bo to come back that first evening he came to visit Jim, so they could play pinochle with her parents and Frank and Laura Murray. He’d never met Jim’s folks, and now they would be back to three teams. Pat could lie on the couch and watch, listen, or sleep.
The day after Jim came home from the hospital, Dan, Frank, and Laura flew back to Ohio. Both Dan and Frank had jobs that required their presence, and Laura was chairing a dinner on the 20th to raise money and clothing for the battered women’s shelter.
Fran missed Hank, but she talked to him every day. He told her the company was getting very close to moving to Paris and said that the next time they called him to leave Cleveland, it would probably be to go to Paris to check out the sites.
He said, “Sweet girl, when that happens, I insist you go with me. I don’t care if you want to keep working, but you’ll have to take a leave of absence for that trip. It will be the honeymoon we never had.” Fran responded by telling him that she felt she’d been on her honeymoon from the day she married him.
On March 15, John James Murray entered this earthly realm. When Maureen called Dan to give him the news, she could almost see the dance he was doing with the phone. Fran taught Pat how to bathe Little Jackie, how to prepare formula, and how to change diapers. She oversaw the entire production of how to hold and burp a little stranger just being introduced to the world of food. Both Pat and Jim stood by in wonder while Fran worked her magic on her nephew. They sometimes wondered if she was going to try to take Little Jackie home with her, she loved him so much. She had already given him his nickname. Jim got a pass; if Little Jackie cried for a bottle at 2:00 a.m., Fran took his watch. Pat happily rocked away as the baby, no matter what time, day or night, took nourishment. Maureen left on the 20th of March.
Jim made a complete recovery, but he was still a little weak. His doctor told him he could go back to work for a half day the first of April and take it from there according to his stamina. Hank called on March 26 to say he would be coming home the 28th, and did she want him to come to Dallas? Fran said she would catch the next plane back and pick him up at the airport. She assured him they didn’t need her hanging around anymore, and she wanted him all to herself, anyway. “I’ve been here for almost two months, honey. I need to see you so much. I’m going to go pack right now.”
When Fran saw Hank step off that plane, she got weak in the knees. He took her in his arms, and they just held each other for a good five minutes. They didn’t dare kiss; if they had, they would have been there all day. When they got in the car, that was another story. After half an hour of satisfying their need for each other within the confines of a car, Hank drove back to Silver Springs. There was no more talking, no eating, and no unpacking. For the next six hours, they just loved each other. And then they were starved.
Hank had been so concerned about Jim’s ordeal that he kept asking Fran questions—questions she couldn’t answer. Because Jim and Hank had remained such close friends, they always kept in touch. The tragic shooting had a deep impact on Hank, and he talked to Jim on the phone a number of times. But other than asking about the shooting itself, they just talked about Jim’s recovery and state of health, his work, and of course his new son.
Now Hank wanted to know what was going on with the legal ramifications of this Felipe Diez’s actions. When he called Jim to ask him about it, Pat answered. She said Jim was taking a nap, something he had become accustomed to doing since coming home from the hospital.
Hank said, “Don’t disturb him, I was just wondering what was going on with the sentencing of that Diez guy. Has a court date been set or anything?
“You know, Hank, I’m not real sure of all the legal details of the case. All I know is that there’s no case. It’s over. I can tell you what I do know that went down. Felipe appeared in court and was charged on five counts. I don’t know what all those counts were. He pled guilty on all five counts. The most serious I do know was the shooting of my wonderful Jim. The police expected Jim to press charges. He did not. Not only did he refuse to do that, but he relocated Felipe’s family of nine, the youngest of which is only around two or three months old, now, to Austin, Texas, to live with the children’s grandparents. Felipe is now out on a bond that Jim paid for.
“Jim insisted that what Felipe did to him was not premeditated, nor done with malice. He felt that it was simply an accident—a knee–jerk reaction to being overwrought and startled. He agreed he should not have had that gun in the first place, and for that, he should be prepared to pay the price for his actions that resulted from his having the gun.
“But Jim knew why this distraught man felt he’d been pushed into a corner and had to push back. He agreed that Felipe had broken the law, but he also understood that he was a man who was completely distraught. His wife, Margarita, had died in childbirth the week before the incident, and Felipe had missed five working days without calling in. When Felipe showed up the day before the incident, ready to go to work, the foreman fired him on the spot. Felipe tried to explain, but the foreman turned his back on him, walking away. Felipe ran after him and grabbed him to make him listen, and that’s when security stepped in and escorted him off the premises.
“After Jim recovered from his wounds, he personally investigated Felipe’s work record and discovered him to be a good worker. He had never missed a day’s work before the death of his wife. Jim agreed with the foreman that not reporting off from work for five days could not be tolerated, but he also came to discover that there were extenuating circumstances in Felipe’s case. Felipe and his wife had eight children. Margarita went into labor with their ninth child and died in childbirth. Being overwrought, taking care of his wife’s funeral, and also having to care for his children, Felipe forgot to report off work. So, if the foreman had not walked away and had listened to him, this whole sordid affair would never have happened. All the foreman needed to do was show a little sympathy and consider Felipe’s good work record.
“Jim also discovered that Felipe had only a fourth–grade education—which, in his opinion, was not conducive to good problem–solving. His intention with the gun was simply to get his foreman to stand still long enough to listen to him. So basically, Jim is taking Felipe’s side on the entire event. He’s also seen to it that it that Felipe will join his family in Austin, Texas, and have a job waiting for him at a GE plant there when he serves his sentence.
“So anyway, Hank, I don’t think the way Jim thinks, but I gotta say, I love the way he thinks, and I think the judge must agree with what he thinks, because he’s the one who sentenced Felipe.”
Hank was blown away by what Pat had told him. He said, “You are married to a very special man, Pat. Keep me posted on what happens, will you?”
Felipe Diez stood in front of Judge Albert Franklin on April 29, 2011, for sentencing. Judge Franklin read off the charges. Felipe pled guilty and was sentenced to two years for possession of a firearm. The other charges were dismissed. His two–year sentence for possession of a firearm was suspended with the stipulation that if he was ever found to have a firearm in his possession, he would be immediately taken to prison to serve twenty–five years. The judge said, “Is that sentence clear to you, Mr. Diez? Do you know what you will face if you ever have a gun in your possession again?”
With tears in his eyes, he nodded. “Sí.”
The judge then finished by saying, “Because of the benevolence of one man, you are now free to go.” He banged his gavel, got up, and left the courtroom.