p5, v7.52 — Around The San Gabriel Valley

Around The San Gabriel Valley

Mountain Views News Saturday, December 28, 2013

MVNews this week: Page 5

AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 28, 2013

SUE REDMAN: Goodbye!

By Christoper Nyerges

[Nyerges is the author of 10 books and regularly offers naturalist
training. He can be reached at www.ChristopherNyerges.com, or
School of Self-reliance, Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041.]

“What’s Going On?”

News and Views from Joan Schmidt

SENSELESS DEATHS IN THE DUARTE AREA

Today is Christmas. This is supposed to be the season of joy, hope and
peace as Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Savior.
However, it is a time of great sorrow and unbearable pain for two families in
the Duarte area.

A few nights ago, I was listening to the news and it said, “Young father killed on the way home
from his job at the Sonic in Duarte on Huntington Drive.” (The shooting occurred on Broderick,
near Felberg in the Duarte County area.)The announcer continued to say that the young eighteen-
year-old was a recent father. I couldn’t believe what I heard and began to tear up. I thought of the
poor family he left behind- girlfriend, parents and siblings. What immeasurable pain they must be
suffering. And there was a month old son who would never know his father. It made no sense.

The next morning the newspaper identified the victim as Malcolm Mency. The Temple Sheriff’s
Station has no suspects at this time and the case will be handled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s
Department’s Homicide Unit. His girlfriend, LeBreonna Moore had been talking to him as he
walked home from work. She said Malcolm had taken time off next week so he could spend time with
their young son, Malcolm Mency II. The victim had a bright future ahead of him. He had studied
at Everett College and was interning at a medical office in Industry as a Medical Assistant. After
Malcolm and LaBreonna spoke, she heard gunshots and then learned it was Malcolm. He had been
shot several times in the back, and was pronounced dead at the hospital. What kind of cowards with
no consciences could do this? I also feared retaliation. It is so horrific that the Hispanic and African
American gangs are rivals and will shoot their enemy if a member of their gang or ethic group is
killed.

Consequently this morning I learned of another tragedy. This time young sixteen-year-old
Christopher Rossi was shot On Huntington Drive in the city of Duarte. His father Daniel heard shots
and ran outside. He found his son lying face down in the carport. Initially the Sheriff’s Department
was not sure there was any connection between the two homicides. “Rossi” is actually an Italian
name, but could he have been mistaken for Hispanic? Again, another set of parents and family are
heartbroken. The cruelty of these killings occurring before Christmas is just unimaginable.

Consequently the Sheriff’s Department and City of Duarte held a Community Mediation Team
meeting on Christmas Eve at the Duarte Community Center. About thirty people attended. Brain
Villalobos, Director of Public Safety, has asked for the public’s help in a press release. “You the
community are part of it. Without the partnership of the community, we can’t be successful.”

At the meeting, Duarte Mayor Liz Reilly told the residents that the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau is
handling both cases and needs help from the community. Mayor Reilly also said that “T.he City’s
priority is to keep its community members safe and work to ensure that no more families have to
suffer.”

The Community Mediation Team includes Duarte, Monrovia and Los Angeles County Leaders who
meet monthly and during times of crisis. Because of the recent shootings, it will meet weekly for the
next thirty days.

Anyone who has ANY information about either of these shooting is asked to call the Sheriff’s
Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500.

Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or test “TIPLA” plus the tip to
274637, or use lacrimestoppers.org.

See related stories on page 6.

During the second
week of December,
I got a message: Sue
Redman had died.
This came as a great
shock. Sue (and her
husband Rich) were
longtime friends. Sue was 72 years old, but I still
had the sense that she would live forever. Here
are my thoughts about Sue as I reflected over the
years.

It was 1976 and I had just moved out of my home
with my parents. I’d gone to my grandfather’s farm
in Ohio to live for 6 months after high school,
came back to California, and then decided it was
time to set out on my own. I was living in a small
hut in Highland Park, searching for the meaning
of life, and needing a job.

I walked into the office of the Altadena
Chronicle on North Lake Avenue looking for
work. I met Sue Redman, and we got along great.
She wasn’t anything like the front desk secretary
at the Star News, whose job was to repel anyone
who walked in the front door.

Sue spoke with me like a real person, and we
quickly became friends. I became a typesetter
and a columnist for Altadena’s only hometown
paper. It was the beginning of a great relationship

I also met Rich at that time and we also became
great friends. He hired me to do framing and
painting at the Chronicle office, and even way
back then, I realized that Rich and Sue were
unique. Two sides of the same coin. They were,
at least in my eyes, the way a married couple
should be, both having respect and concern for
the other.

(Over time, the Altadena Chronicle segued to
the Altadena Weekly, which was swallowed up by
the Pasadena Weekly, so we could say that part of
what Sue and Rich created lives on.)

I always found Rich to be the model of
integrity and honesty. So I once asked Sue if she
worshipped the ground where Rich walks, and
Sue laughed.

I realized that as the years went by, I was very
much a part of the extended Redman family.
Sue and Rich hired me for one of my first jobs.
Rich printed my first book in their newspaper’s
print shop. When I got married the first time,
the ceremony took place at their home in the
Meadows conducted by Rich, who was also a
pastor of an Altadena church. And, up to about a
year ago, I lived there on the Redman estate on the
edge of the Angeles National Forest, and found it
to be paradise on earth, within the watchful and
protective aura of Sue and Rich

Each time I would come back from a trip, Sue
was so interested in hearing all the details and
encouraged me to write about it

I very much enjoyed reading Sue’s two novels,
and I hope that everyone reading this will
eventually read them and enjoy the world that
Sue created. [They are available on Kindle].

I was saddened and shocked to hear of Sue’s
passing. Perhaps I shouldn’t be. I mean, we will
all die. But, I still miss her, and have had her in
my mind and heart since I heard the news.

I think with someone like Sue, she never really
dies. She touched so many of us, in so many ways,
with her kindness and friendship and genuine
concern.

The circle of friends and acquaintances of
the Redman family were vast, evidenced by the
diverse and large group of people who gathered
on the Winter Solstice at a downtown Pasadena
church to honor her life.

I told Rich that night that he was a very lucky
man. He lives in paradise, and he had the best
possible life partner, and he is still surrounded by
a wonderful family, and friends, and students.

Sue and Rich, thank you for being a part of my
life. I will always be a Redman!

We’d like to hear from you!

What’s on YOUR Mind?