The mother left early for the auditorium so the family could get front-row seats. Providence College was holding its graduation, and Maureen Faulkner's youngest, Cheryl, was going to be getting her master's degree.
Cheryl Faulkner Dowding had been a high school math teacher. The degree was in education; Cheryl was hoping to do counseling, as well as teaching, and this would help her.By the time Maureen parked, the sidewalks downtown were full, but she made it - got seats right up front. Soon the whole family joined her. Maureen's two older sisters, Deborah and Lynn, would be having a special role to play this day.
The ceremony began. The governor gave his greetings, then the mayor, and soon it was time for the awarding of degrees. Maureen Faulkner followed as the list worked alphabetically toward Cheryl.
Maureen began to think about what a good time this had been in Cheryl's life. Cheryl and her husband, a carpenter, had just finished an addition on their home. The work for the degree was behind her, as well. After six years of marriage, they had begun to talk about starting a family.
Then, from her seat, Maureen heard the director of the school's graduate school of education call out Cheryl's name. And now the mother began to remember.
The phone call came on the evening of March 20, around 6. It was her son- in-law.
"We're at the hospital," he said. "Cheryl has had an accident. Can you come?"
Maureen asked if it was serious, and the son-in-law said it was, and soon she was there, being directed toward a waiting room.
"Where is she?" Maureen asked.
Alan, Cheryl's husband, was wiping away tears. He said they were getting her ready to go upstairs to intensive care.
"What happened?"
She'd taken a bus home from school. Around 4 p.m., she was crossing a street on her usual route home. Suddenly, they said, a man named Mario Sanchez drove his car at high speed right into her. The police charged him with drunk driving.
How is she doing?
It wasn't good, everyone said. Cheryl's heart was still beating, but the doctors were saying there was not much hope.
It was an hour before Maureen was at last ushered to her daughter's bedside. Cheryl was attached to a respirator, and there were many IV's. The doctor tried to comfort the mother. He said Cheryl had a strong, beautiful body, and many of the injuries there could be repaired. But the injuries to the brain, he said - those could not be repaired.
The family kept a vigil, only occasionally going home. On the fourth day the hospital called to say they thought it was about to happen. They all gathered. They all were able to say their goodbyes.
Cheryl was 28. She liked swimming, waterskiing and camping. She believed in teaching, in education and in children.
Now, in the auditorium, Cheryl Faulkner Dowding's name was called out from the podium. The department director said her degree would be received posthumously by her two sisters.
And all Maureen could think was that this was supposed to be the beginning, but it wasn't, and she wiped at her eyes so much she wasn't able to see the degree awarded until later, on videotape.
Afterward, the family gathered and did their best to have a graduation party.
Then Maureen went home, and she was alone. And on this special day, she found herself taking out an unlikely document. She took out the police report, and went over it for the hundredth time. And she made a promise to Cheryl that she would see this through, do her best to put out a message that this kind of thing cannot continue to happen. And that is how she spent the evening of her daughter's graduation.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service