I didn't mention it here, (I did in my other blog, Cooter's History Thing), but Monday, December 1st, marked the 50th anniversary of the tragic Our Lady of Angels fire in Chicago in which 92 children and three nuns died.
I came across an article in the December 4th Marin (Ca) Independent Journal about the fire and a Navato resident by the name of Jonathan Cain. He is an OLA survivor and was also the keyboardist and a songwriter with the popular band Journey.
He attended the ceremony this past Sunday at Chicago's Holy Family Church where candles were lit and the names of victims read aloud. Some of the victims' relatives wore lapel pins with their pictures.
And, Cain played a song that he had written this past November about the event, "The Day They Became Angels." It will tear you up. The article had a link to the song. Quite an evoking scene painted in music and words, and by a survivor.
JONATHAN LEONARD FRIGA
As he was known back then was an eight-year-old in third grade, Room 101, on the ground floor of the school. When they smelled smoke, his class was herded outside and saw the black smoke and heard the screams of their classmates. One nun climbed a ladder to save those trapped on the second floor while another took the class inside the church located next door. They prayed.
Jonathan didn't stay long, figuring that being in a building next to one that was on fire was not a good idea. He went back outside and looked around in shock. "I ran home to find my mother on her knees (praying)" From their window above the deli about six blocks away, they could see a mushroom cloud. He remembers that the surviving children did not have the opportunity to have people available to deal with their post-traumatic stress like they do today.
A Very Sad Story Indeed.
Being an account of some things I'm interested in, what I'm doing, and reflections on my past, especially music.
Listen to this man. Seven years of college, you know. Trying to reason with 2020 and, now, 2022.
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