public apology

Ok, so this ISN'T a prayer or praise just something I would like to do. I owe someone an apology but I don't know where he is. I don't even remember his last name.


Go back in time to the summer of 1981, 82, 83. WAYYYY Back. Anyway, our yards where we grew up in Tennessee were one big yard. No fences and all the kids played together. My best friend lived behind me (and i still talk to him to this day and he doesn't remember his last name either). There was an old couple the lived next to him. They had a nephew that would come stay for the summer. His name was Nygel. He might have been a year or so younger than me. He was a polite, well mannered kid. We played well together but when other neighborhood kids got involved they were mean to him. I wouldn't really pick on him myself but I never did anything to stop it. It was mean stuff -- stuff like "Hey, go take this stick and hit the hornet's nest". Or "we're gonna play butt's up and you're up" (this was a game played with a tennis or raquet ball and people would beam him HARD with the ball).

This went on every summer for a few years. As I got older I didn't see Nygel much. He would still come by the house from time to time when I was in 7th or 8th grade, but never during the summer. It night be in the school year when he was visiting his aunt for a weekend (and he did not live out of town he lived in the same town as me, just across town maybe 20 miles away). but he would come over and i would blow him off. Tell him I was busy or didn't feel like doing anything.

The last time I saw him would've been around 1991 or 1992. I was at "the fair". A young man with long hair and a Judas Priest shirt came up to me. A BIG smile was on his face. He said "Hi Mike do you remember me?". And I knew right off it was him. He was just as friendly as always but looked to be running with the wrong crowd. We spoke for just a min and I never saw him again.

Now here is what bothers me: All these years later I feel bad that I didn't do anything when the other kids picked on him and I just stood by and laughed too. I feel bad that I just blew him off when we were young teens. Maybe he needed a friend and I just blew him off.

So I want to say that I am SORRY to all the "Nygels" out there. Maybe one of them is you and you too were treated bad. I by no means was "outright" mean but I did nothing to stop it and I laughed with the other kids and then blew him off later.

I would love to find him now but I don't remember his last name and his aunt and uncle died many years ago.

mikeinfla,

That's tough. We all have things like that in our past, usually as the victim and the victimizer. God knows how you feel about it and who knows? You may run into Nygel and get a chance to apologize for real...