Daughter Kady, 19 (but going on 26) and headed from Cal U to WVU this month to begin her sophomore year, long had badgered her mom and dad to pay for a fitness club membership.
Not only was it a great way to keep in shape, she argued, it was a proven way to relieve all that stress associated with being 19 going on 26. Never mind the elliptical machine in the basement featuring every electronic gadget known to man and the 32-inch color TV to watch while exercising.
And besides, Kady would argue, sensing she had a deal-clincher in hand, she could get a heavily discounted membership by piggybacking it onto a friend's.
Had her summer work been more productive -- it was hindered by fewer and fewer scheduled hours and then an appendectomy -- Mom and Dad might have said yes. But higher education and living expenses being what they are, the answer was no. And the usual entreaties of a 19-year-old going on 26 followed.
Those protestations fell silent Tuesday night as Kady sat on the couch and watched TV coverage of the shootings at the LA Fitness center in Collier. It was the gym she had visited and hoped to join. Had we relented, she most likely would have been at the complex that night.
The fact that a friend of elder sister Taylor had left the gym not long before the shooting only deepened her stunned silence. And it likely will go down in McNickle family history as the most appreciated "no" ever delivered to a daughter.
-- Colin McNickle
