When I was twenty one...

...a very troubled man went to l'École Polytechnique de Montréal and killed
Genevieve Bergeron
Nathalie Croteau
Anne-Marie Edward
Maryse Laganiere
Anne-Marie Lemay
Michele Richard
Annie Turcotte
Helene Colgan
Barbara Daigneault
Maud Haviernick
Marys Leclair
Susan Pelletier
Annie St-Arneault
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz

Why?

Because they were women.

I worked on a different Canadian University campus at the time.
A co worker joked to me that I must now be nervous because if someone wanting to hurt people came into our office, I would be the first one killed.

It wasn't funny.
I just stared at her.

All these women should still be alive.
Aggravated by teenagers, worn out by their jobs, knitting presents for their friends and family
and they are not.

I try to think of them and remember them at least once a year, to say each of their names aloud in remembrance.

It saddens and frustrates me that I know the name of the man who killed them, that I can't forget and yet it is so hard to remember all of theirs.

There was a lot more news coverage about him at the time.
Which is what he wanted.

I do not want to give him that, even though he died the same day, by his own hand.

So today, I think about the young woman I was and the young women they were and I will read their names aloud.