Unanswered Prayers: Remembering JFK [Terence Winch]
L ike many people my age, I have never shaken off the horrible shock of JFK’s murder sixty-three years ago. His abrupt removal from American life—in so bloody and surreal a fashion—was a loss felt with special intensity by Irish Catholics. Hard to process, as we say today. The photo below was taken on 22 November 1963, the day President Kennedy was murdered. In suit jacket and skinny tie, I am exiting the chapel on the campus of Iona College (now University) in New Rochelle, NY. Students were streaming in and out of the chapel that day in a frenzy of stunned bereavement. I was in my first semester of college and it was brutally clear to me that life in these United States would never be the same. I pick at the what-ifs in my mind all the time, as I’m sure is true of many others who remember that day. ___________________________________________ Admonition I have been three kinds of dog: Border Collie, Wolfhound, Black Mouth Cur. I remain talented at herding and hunting. ...