A Story About a Gunshot and Ripple Effects

By Every Family's Got One Guest Writer -- Stephanie Stearns Dulli   The gunshot, the blood, the very murder itself is a heavy stone dropped from a great height into our lives. Immediately everything is violently displaced. Though we continue existing, though what has been displaced settles… the ripples pullulate outward for decades. Generational repercussions lessening until it’s simply family lore. And even then, there is still pain. A gunshot... ended my father’s life when I was a young toddler. A blank canvas exists where my memories of him should be. My father figures pieced together from television shows [...]