Hope from tragedy, eight years on

Yesterday marked the eighth anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. He died in hospital on the 12th of October, 1998, after being beaten and left for dead on the 7th of October.

I was 14 when it happened. Being 14, I was oblivious to the world around me. I don't remember anything about it from that time. I read about Matthew about six months ago looking for articles on coming out to my friends. What I read made me cry.

I couldn't retell it and do it justice, so I have reproduced the following text from www.matthewsplace.com:

Matthew was lured from a campus bar shortly after midnight on October 7 by two men (Aaron McKinney, 22 and Arthur Henderson, 21) who told him they were gay. He was driven to a remote area near the Sherman Hills neighborhood east of Laramie, tied to a split-rail fence, tortured, beaten and pistol-whipped by his attackers, while he begged for his life. He was then left for dead in near freezing temperatures. A cyclist who found him on Snowy Mountain View Road at 6:22 pm, some 18 hours after the attack, at first mistook him for a scarecrow. He was unconscious and suffering from hypothermia. His face was caked with blood, except where it had been partially washed clean by tears.

Matthew died at 12:53 am on Monday 12th October 1998, at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his family at his bedside. Hospital officials said Matthew had a fracture from behind his head to just in front of his right ear and a massive brain stem injury which affected his vital signs, including his heart beat, body temperature and other involuntary functions. There were also approximately a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. He was so badly injured in the attack that doctors were unable to operate. He never regained consciousness after being found, and remained on full life support.

I signed up for the email list and received and email today about the 8th anniversary of his death. His parents, Judy and Dennis, set up the Matthew Shepard Foundation. They run education and advocacy programmes in the USA. If you have a spare few minutes, check it out, take out your credit card and donate to help them in their important work.

I can't imagine what they went through that week back in October 1998. I commend them for turning their tragedy into something beneficial to ensure it doesn't happen again.