Cook: The great light to follow

David Cook

Remember the day Alex Gallman died?

It was a December morning, and he'd dropped his sons off at Brainerd Baptist School, just like always. He and his wife Anna were going out to an early lunch, celebrating the anniversary of their first date.

Then, a fender bender, a scraping of two cars at an intersection. Alex got out. It was the smallest of crashes. Moments later, it became the biggest.

In our stand-your-ground world, the stranger in the car pulled out a gun and shot Alex dead.

And just like that, the Gallman world collapsed. Kaleb and Jayden and Gabe lost their dad. Dianne and Charles lost their son. Anna, her husband.

Some days, she still can't believe it.

"I keep thinking he's going to walk in the door," she said.

She knows he won't. But since his death, the Gallmans say something else has.

"The love of God," said Dianne, Alex's mom.

Days after Alex was shot, someone started a fund to help pay for bills and education (you can donate to the Gallman Trust Fund at any area SunTrust bank). Dozens upon dozens of checks came, many from total strangers, from across the street and across the country.

"People we've never met," said Anna.

Neighbors started mowing her yard and washing her car, without asking. Friends packed their freezer with weeks worth of dinners. During the funeral, teachers set up a separate room for the boys, blanketing them with hugs, snacks, games, anything.

Cards with verses on them keep appearing in the mailbox. Gift cards. Cash. Again and again, they've heard: How can we help? What do you need?

"My mom was a huge believer in angels," said Anna. "That Jesus puts in your life people that know what you need. That is what happened after this."

Alex was a personal trainer working days while Anna worked nights at Red Lobster. With him gone, Anna needed a shift change or new job to be home with her boys.

So Brainerd Baptist offered her one.

"We envision Anna being the director of our cafeteria at some point in the near future," said headmaster Sean Corcoran.

The school offered the family significant financial aid so Jayden (first grade) and Kaleb (third grade) could remain. (Gabe goes to Heritage Middle).

"They're ours," Corcoran said. "We want them here."

So did Alex. He and Anna saved and sacrificed for their sons' education. It was one of ten thousand things Alex did as a dad.

"If you can be sad in heaven, then Alex is the saddest because he misses his boys so much," said Dianne.

The unofficial classroom dad, he went on every field trip. He coached them, played in the backyard. Every night, they ate dinner around the table. If the phone rang, Alex wouldn't answer it: nothing interrupts family time.

"He was the glue," said his mom.

A big Georgia fan, Alex would call his dad every halftime, just to chat.

"I miss him," said his dad Charles, weeping.

"The kids tell me, 'You don't know how to tuck me in like Dad,'" said Anna.

We can define our world in violent ways: collisions and bullets and raging strangers.

Or we can define it by the ten thousand acts of love that serve as the counterweight, the opposing refrain.

If that roadside violence tore the Gallmans apart, it has been the love of friends and strangers that has knit them back together.

"There is a lot of good in this world," Anna said.

Each night, Alex would tuck his sons into bed, telling them about the day to come. It was like a forecast of sorts:

Kaleb, you have a spelling test tomorrow.

Jayden, we've got basketball practice after school.

Gabe, good luck on that math quiz.

And boys, tomorrow is going to be cold.

Perhaps if he had one more night with his sons, Alex would have given one more forecast:

Boys, a very terrible storm is coming. It will shake you to your core.

But don't be afraid.

Because great light will follow.

And that's where you'll find me.

Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.