Newsweek has posted an excerpt of Judy Shepard's new memoir, The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed
(Hudson River Press):
"But the phone call that Thursday morning wasn't from Matt. It was about
him. When the man on the other end of the line announced who he was, an
emergency-room doctor from Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, I went
numb. I don't remember what he said, or what I did next. I'm not sure
whether it was the ringing phone or my subsequent gasp that startled
the still-sleeping Dennis. Whatever it was that woke him, Dennis took
the phone from me and then, after a seemingly endless silence, made a
noise—a sort of helpless and mournful groan—that I'd never heard before
and haven't heard since. Coming as it did from my husband, a man whose
reserved manner is as typically masculine and Western as his Wrangler
jeans and cowboy boots, the moan confirmed my worst fears."
Read the full excerpt here.
