By David Goodman
The call came at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday, October 9. It was my friend Ed, his voice cracking with emotion. “There was a car accident last night,” he began haltingly. “Eli and Cyrus ... Mary, Liam, and Janie were in the car. No one survived.”
I heard rustling upstairs, where my son Jasper, a junior at Harwood Union High School, was awakened by a call from Ed’s son Eriks, who was telling him the awful news. Eli and Cyrus were two of their closest friends. I ran upstairs to be with my son. To hold him. To cry.
And so our journey has begun. It is a journey of grief – for our family, our school, our community and our state. And it is a journey of recovery. After a week of attending funerals, vigils and poignant soccer games, I am starting to see how grief and recovery are braided together like a meandering stream that leads slowly to a better place.
Eli Brookens was a frequent sleepover guest at our house. He and his three siblings and his parents moved from Philadelphia to Waterbury eight years ago, and Eli and Jasper quickly bonded over their fanatical love of all things baseball. Bob Brookens, Eli’s dad, and I coached the boys’ Little League teams for years, which is where I got to know Cyrus Zschau and his dad Chris, who coached the Mad River team. The boys’ friendship began on the baseball diamond but soon carried over to skiing, soccer and the other pastimes that Vermont kids love.
Five beautiful souls, four of them in the same class in the same school, all friends. What a cruel stroke of fate it is that drew a bullseye on our small community. How do we go on?
The first hint of an answer came within hours of the crushing news. Harwood opened its doors on a Sunday and students streamed in. Big, friendly therapy dogs sat in the middle of the student cafe. Students hugged, cried, petted the dogs and hugged some more. The next day, many students gathered at the Canteen, a creemee stand in Waitsfield where Cyrus worked. There were free creemees for everyone.
On Monday night, a candlelight vigil on the Harwood soccer field was attended by more than 1,000 people from around Vermont. Like white blood cells rushing to heal an open wound, neighbors, friends and strangers poured into our community to embrace our heartbroken families and students.
I had seen this once before. After Tropical Storm Irene, families in Waterbury and the Mad River Valley stood in their ruined homes. I remember well the shell-shocked expressions on the faces of those who had lost everything. But in the midst of their grief, with the wreckage of their lives strewn about their feet, they looked up to see their neighbors and strangers streaming toward them. To help them get back up. To let them know they were not alone.
That’s how we heal. Vermonters get through tough times ... together. We are Vermont Strong.
Last Thursday, something magical happened on the Harwood soccer field. It was the first game that the Harwood varsity boys’ soccer team played since losing their two team members, Eli and Cyrus. Harwood was playing traditional soccer rival U-32. Incredibly, U-32 was also grieving the death of a player, Seamus Bell, its captain, who died in August in an accidental drowning. The two teams embraced in a large circle and the 1,000 or so spectators instinctively swarmed onto the field to wrap the players in an even larger circle.
They were two teams. One community. One Vermont.
I believe that our school and our community will be transformed by this tragedy in a powerful and ultimately hopeful way. We will take this journey of grief and emerge stronger, wiser and more compassionate than we began.
The children of our caring community are wise. They will lead this journey back to life. They will dance again. Chase soccer balls. Ski deep powder. The most fitting tribute to their fallen friends is that they live fully and drink deeply of life.
With many helping hands, the healing has begun. It will be hard. There will be setbacks. But we will come through this ... together. We are Harwood Strong.
David Goodman of Waterbury Center is vice chair of the Harwood school board.
