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Hope and grief
By the time you read these words, young Michael Larcombe (see our story on page 3 and John Wood’s cartoon on this page) may have been found, or he may have just returned home. The story of his disappearance may have been concluded, for better or worse. We fervently hope that the ending is a happy one for him, his family and his community, both at school and in Uxbridge as a whole.
The community at Uxbridge Secondary School has endured a lot of grief in the last few years. Too many bright and promising young people have been lost to traffic accidents or other tragedies; too much time has been spent going to funerals, too many tears shed over friends who had everything to live for.
Despite this recurring grief, the friends and colleagues of Michael Larcombe remained relentlessly optimistic as word spread of his disappearance earlier this week. Their determination that his story should not be over, was reflected in the word “Hope” on many of their wrists. Many of them joined in the search for him, wanting desperately to be the one who might find him, safe and warm, not very far away.
We, of course, have no idea what might have prompted Michael to leave home, as his parents and police believe he freely did. What we do know is that as a community, Uxbridge is more supportive of youth of all paths and persuasions than it ever has been. The Uxbridge Youth Centre has played a large role in that support over the last six years, and its leadership has resulted in a greater focus on youth within a lot of community organizations. An example is the Celebration of the Arts, which dedicated one of its concert evenings this past September to four young bands, all of which had strong Uxbridge roots among their members.
We have celebrated the achievements of Uxbridge youth often in our pages. But as much as all of us are determined to do our best to encourage and support our young people, we must also admit that we’re not reaching all of them. So we hope that Michael Larcombe will come back and talk about about where his community may have failed him, so that we can do a better job with someone else down the road, and try to avoid the kind of heartache that happened in our town this week. Please come home, Michael, we’ll all try and do better.
July 14, 2011
