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When you ply the journalism trade in a small town, it’s inevitable that you will end up writing about family, friends and friends you haven’t met yet. Hopefully, they will be happy stories, like when the Cherokee Scout published an article on Jan. 17, 2007, about one of my daughters after she took missionary trips to Mexico, Pakistan and Uganda; color printouts of those pages still don the wall in my office.
On multiple occasions, my son, Ian, was involved in stories that made the local newspaper. Two of them even made the front page. And each incident shows a different aspect of his character.
- The first story took place more than 17 years ago.
Ian became friends with a young woman in Cherokee County, who confided in him that she had been sexually assaulted by a young man who plied her beforehand with alcohol and drugs. She didn’t know what to do, but she couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and was having suicidal thoughts.
When Ian told me what was going on, I was shocked. That’s because I had gotten to know the alleged assaulter when my kids were in high school. He had come over to the house just to jam with me a few times. On the surface, he seemed like one of the good guys.
“What should I do?” Ian asked me.
I answered with the question I always asked him when faced with a tough decision: “What does your heart and mind tell you is the right thing to do?”
“This girl deserves and needs justice,” he said without hesitation.
I agreed, and told him I would have his back if he encouraged her to do so.
With Ian by her side, the girl soon reported the crime to local law enforcement authorities, who made the arrest. The Scout published the story. Her healing started soon afterward.
- The last story is from July 2012.
After organizing a 24-hour music festival called WHEE! FEST in Cullowhee, which resulted in 450 cans of food being donated to the Sylva Community Table, Ian was inspired to start an electronic music event called Beatz4Eatz that he brought to Chevelles 66 in Murphy.
Admission to Beatz4Eatz was either $5 or a canned food donation. Most opted to bring a can or two, which is why several boxes of food were delivered the following week to the Hurlburt-Johnson Friendship House homeless shelter.
“They were really surprised,” Ian told the Scout about volunteers at the shelter when they received the food. “Really positive things are happening. I feel on top of the world right now.”
My son loved to create new sounds, and as loudly as possible, but it wasn’t enough to just have a good time – he also wanted it to be for a good cause. He even recruited DJs from Atlanta and Denver to come to downtown Murphy.
“First, let’s help local people,” Ian told the Scout, “then we can move on to the rest of the world.”
Ian suddenly passed away on Aug. 15, and every morning when I first open my eyes I’m reminded anew that my son is gone. Remembering these events and re-reading these stories reminds me that while my son made plenty of bad decisions during his 38 years of walking the earth, he also made some very good ones.
While I’ll never get over his loss, it’s nice to be reminded that he also had victories while he was with us. And I’ll see him again on the other side.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 828-837-5122; email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com; or Twitter @daviddBstroh.