My name is Paul Scharff and I am going to write about something that is important to me.

My life drastically changed from one day to the next on June 2nd, 1981.

I was born and grew up in the Chicagoland area. As early as I can remember, my father was business owner and my mother was a homemaker. My first home was in Romeoville, IL but I don’t remember it. The house that I first remember was our house in Lisle, IL. It was my mother’s parent’s house and she grew up there. My father at that time owned a tavern in Brookfield, IL. It was off of Ogden Avenue and I think Grand. The name of the bar was called Cousin’s Corner. My father opened the bar with his cousin Butch.

In 1973 my brother Mike was born. The tavern was doing well because in 1975 we moved to a new house in Downers Grove, IL. Finally, in 1977 we moved to what I call my home, McHenry, IL. This is where most my memories come from. It was a great place to grow up. We lived in this middle class neighborhood that had some real nice amenities. The neighborhood was called Val-Mar Estates. It was named after the two daughters of the developer who lived across the street. All of the houses were large houses on 1-acre parcels in this area. Our house was one of a few houses that wrapped around a horse pasture and barn. If you lived in our neighborhood you could have a horse, but we never did. I never appreciated it at the time, but it is nice to wake up and see horses in your back yard. The best thing for us is that since we did not own a horse we never had to rotate barn duty. Off to the right of the barn from back yard, we had a recreation house and pool. I loved it! It took my cousin to threaten me to move to the deep end but after that the pool and recreation house was mine. We had a diving board, which is a major luxury these days because of the insurance required. I would do front flips and back flips, off the board or from the side. My friends and I would jump our bikes in and throw patio furniture in the pool. I don’t know why we did it. Who am I kidding – it was fun!

My best friend growing up was Shane. We did everything together. His grandfather owned a gravel pit in Lakemoor, Illinois, which was pretty close to my house. I could ride my bike on the trails and get there faster then we could by car.

Shane had a brother that was the same age as my brother. We all hung out and played in the gravel pit. The pit was an ever-changing landscape of mounds of dirt and sand, and a lake that only got bigger and deeper. We liked to play war a lot. We were happy kids. I was a happy kid. I received bikes and train sets for Christmas. Everything was good.

The only rough spot that I had was that I would be shortest kid in the class if my neighbor and friend Gary grew at all. Gary helped me shoulder the responsibility of being the shortest kid in the class until JR high. I hated it when Gary grew over the summer.

In 1978 my brother Steve was born (it’s Stephen on his birth certificate but he goes by Steve).

June 2nd, 1981
Today is a very exciting day. I am ten years old, There is a half day until summer vacation starts, and in three days it is my birthday. School is going to be fun today because it is going to be recess all day long with people making plans for the summer and signing autograph books. The day has gone on with lots of laughing and playing.

Shane and I were walking back into the school when we saw our friend Danny crying. We asked him what was wrong. He said that a friend of the family had died. Her name was Pat. Shane and I were walking to the cafeteria to buy some ice cream. We bought Danny one to try and make him feel better.

Shortly after that the school principal came to my classroom and asked for me. He told me that I wasn’t in any trouble but I should go with him. He asked my teacher for my report card to take with us but I interjected that I would be in school tomorrow to get it. He said that it was ok and I could have mine now. We started walking and he told me that we were going to get my brother Mike. Our principal reviewed our report cards and commented that we were both good students. My brother and I looked at him a little surprised. As if we had another choice other than to do well! When we made it to the principal’s office, we saw a family friend that we had not seen in a long time. It was Kurtis and he was going to take us back to our house. We hadn’t seen Kurtis for a couple of years but that could be decades as far as a kid is concerned. We were very excited to see him and he seemed happy to see us too. It was a short ride to our house and when we got there; my Aunt Faye was at the house. We asked Kurtis to stay but he told us that he had to go. We said goodbye and went inside the house with my aunt. We had not seen our aunt for as long as we had not seen Kurtis. This was turning out to be a very exciting day!

As I walked into the kitchen, I noticed that the window screen was knocked out of the window. I asked my aunt about it, and she told me not to worry about it – that it would be fixed. Minutes later, my aunt’s husband, Uncle Tom, showed up to the house. He had Hostess Snowballs for my brother and I. Unfortunately, I don’t like coconut – but I thought it was a nice thought nonetheless.

I asked my Uncle Tom if he knew what happened to the screen on the window. He told me that he had to get in the house through the window because the door was locked. It seemed odd and I wondered why my aunt had evaded such a simple explanation. Surely she had seen Uncle Tom climb through the window.

I looked out front to our U-shaped drive way. I saw a series of big cars pull up . My mother’s Lincoln was the second or third car among the Crown Victoria’s and similar type of cars. My mother got out of one of the other cars. I do not remember who was driving my mother’s car, but I was surprised she had allowed anyone else to drive it. She was coming back from bowling and had my brother Steve with her. My brother Mike and I ran out to meet her. As we ran out to greet her we found her noticeably upset. She looked at us and said “Your father was k…” She did not get the full sentence out before we all hysterically started crying. I remember my brother Steve who was 2 ½ at the time, did not know what was going on but started to scream and cry. He started to run off heading down the hill of our yard. A few of us ran after him. I do not remember who caught him but somebody did.

My day and I turned dark black.