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transcends the darkness of
loss The Boston Herald Most parents tuck the vision away in a far corner of their subconscious, a place reserved for thoughts too terrible to imagine. It begins with a voice on the phone, apologizing: "I'm sorry to tell you…" For Todd and Judy McKie, the call came 12 years ago. Their 21-year old son, Jesse, their only child, brimming with dreams of life as a musician, was beaten and stabbed to death as he walked with friends near Central Square in Cambridge. Reasons? One of the killers put it bluntly: "We was looking to mess someone up." To that end they also chased down Rigaberto Carrion , a bystander who saw Jesse McKie die and proceeded to kill him as well. By most of the standard measurements, Todd and Judy McKie are doing quite well. A pair of accomplished Cambridge artists, they are surrounded by a universe of loving family and devoted friends. Yet as warm and easy as their smiles are, when they speak of their son, shadows suddenly erupt to haunt their faces and choke off their words. Time may cover the hole in their hearts. But it will never close it. So, Judy creates sculpture and designs furniture. Todd paints and illustrates children's books. And when they hear news that one of Jesse's friends has married, or another is having a baby, they smile. And they cry. And they allow themselves the bittersweet luxury of a daydream about a life stolen. The McKies understand they now live in a place quite apart from those whose lives have not been forever altered by a dreaded phone call. And yet, it is within this community of survivors, who share the same open wound that Todd and Judy McKie have found their greatest consolation and strength. Last night, the McKies took part in a poignant groundbreaking ceremony outside the Saltonstall State office Building for the Garden of Peace- a memorial to the state's homicide victims. Judy McKie was there as a survivor, a designer and an artist. The Garden of Peace will be anchored by her 15-foot bronze sculpture titled "Ibis Ascending," a representation of three heron-like birds in flight toward heaven. "It will stand at the end of a dry river bed of stones, each bearing the names of (murder) victims," McKie explained. "The (river) bed represents the journey through the grief process. A black, granite orb symbolic of the darkness we are plunged into leads to a place of hope and transcendence." It is the transcendence of their slain children toward a place of peace. Judy McKie said her artwork is also meant as a transcendent prayer for the living, that we may find a way beyond the madness. "My hope is that all the names on the stones will serve as testimony to how many lives are being lost," Judy said. "And I hope that the garden itself will serve as both a gathering place and a public refuge for those of us, survivors, who too often feel cut off from that other world we once knew." David Meier, chief of the Suffolk DA's homicide division was with Todd and Judy McKie last night. Some ten years ago, Meier was the Middlesex prosecutor who put Jesse McKie's killers in jail. "My life has been enriched just by knowing Todd and Judy for all these years," I wish with all my heart that we had never met." The Garden of Peace will be integrated into a new entrance for the Saltonstall building, which will be dedicated in April 2003. Volunteers are working to underwrite $770,000 in construction costs.
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