The Day the Angels Cried
by
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“Larry, you don’t want to go there! You don’t want to see your daughter like she is now!” said the Chief of Police. I remember that Jim’s eyes were stern and his face like stone. But that didn’t stop my progression. I was going in!
All of a sudden, I looked up over the crowd and shouted, “WHERE IS THE MANIAC WHO SHOT MY DAUGHTER? I WANT HIM! WHERE IS HE?”
I never took my eyes off of the door, and never stopped trying to move toward it. Oh, how the element of fear was driving me closer to those doors. Doors that would open a vision of pain and sorrow for years to come that would stretch my world to a breaking point. The rage was physically driving me while the anger was motivating my thoughts.
Cheryl had just arrived and saw me struggling to get to Gina.
“Has Gina died?” she asked one the men.
“Yes, Cheryl, I’m sure Gina is dead.” The answer was definite and final.
Cheryl, like a wounded warrior, put her hands to her face and began to crumble. It was at that very instant that God intervened in the life of Cheryl and spoke to her heart clearer than she had ever heard Him speak before. I can recall her testimony as to what God spoke to her. “It’s alright, Cheryl. She’s with me.” God’s power and grace overwhelmed her. She lifted her face from her hands and said softly, “It’ll be alright. Gina is with Jesus. It’ll be alright.
Cheryl then walked up to me and said, “Larry, you really don’t want to see Gina like she is. Please remember her the way you left her this morning.”
I looked deep into Cheryl’s eyes. I remember hearing in times past that the eyes are the windows into the soul. The emotions within me were churning with a mixture of intensity that I had never encountered before. What expressions were coming from deep within my soul began to manifest themselves outwardly much like times when I had played a football game that demanded a strong defense and hard-nose hitting and explosive reactions. Yet Cheryl’s eyes seemed to convey a deep inner sense of fearless calm and composure.
Cheryl saw my face, and it dawned on her that if she were in my position, nothing would stop her from seeing Gina either. In an instant, I was gone and already at the two entrance doors that had been broken from their hinges. I was moving closer and closer toward the most devastating scene that a father, parent, and human could ever witness. Cheryl was not far behind me.
I eased through the door and into the aisle. I could hear Virgil Fielden still praying. I knew that we always sat on the left, but I immediately looked to the right and saw Gina’s blue shoes and little body that had been covered with an astroturf matt. It was at this moment that I began to realize that my visual and mental awareness was beginning to slow down. I was seeing for the first time a place that no parent thinks he or she would ever see. I was experiencing an awesome sound of quiet refrain. It was as though I had entered a very holy abiding place that demanded a sense of stillness and reverence like never before.
I walked closer, looked beneath the pews, and saw that Gina’s hand was covered with blood. I saw the puddle of blood that surrounded her and realized that the devastating message delivered to me only moments before was a horrible, horrible reality. I dropped to my knees with my head in my hands. I knew that Gina was dead. I never lifted the cover.
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About the Book
The Day the Angels Cried tells the story of an event that made history in the United States of America on June 22, 1980 when a gunman entered the worship services of the First Baptist Church of Daingerfield, Texas. In a matter of minutes, five people lay dead and ten others wounded with hundreds of innocent people wondering if they might be next to face the horror of death at the hand of a madman. For Larry Linam, it was a day that changed his life forever. It was during this worship service that he lost his first born child, Mary Regina Linam, his seven year old daughter. He uses the book to convey the emotions of anger, fear, hatred, and revenge that consumed his life for more than two decades while maintaining a working lifestyle to care for his family. He was living a life torn by a faith in God and a fear that justice would not be served by the courts. The events that unfold in his book as he bears his heart and soul leads the reader on a journey of a downward spiral brought about by depression, anger, and devastation as he makes attempts to exact vengeance upon the murderer of his child and upon the family of the murderer as well.
The journey will also lead the reader into the joy and recovery that is found when hope is restored through faith in God and friends that never gave up on Larry Linam. He shares how finding forgiveness and giving forgiveness dispelled the darkness in his life and allowed him to tell the story to thousands and the desire to share with more that God’s purpose for believers in Jesus Christ is the most important thing for anyone facing life’s challenges.
About the Author
Larry Linam grew up in small town USA doing what kids do in an agricultural based economy kids do—work on farms driving tractors, planting crops, and hunting when time permitted as recreation. The education he received at DeKalb ISD allowed him to prepare for college in both academics and athletics. He played for the mighty Bears football team which became one of the greatest teams in school history in football and baseball. From here, he went on to play baseball for Ouachita Baptist University and once again became a member of a team that won not only their district championship but culminated its winning ways in the NAIA Collegiate record in its world series in 1971. The events that he encountered in adult life after being devastated by a history making tragedy left him with the desire to share his heart, mind and soul with others while hoping that people who suffer similar crushing blows would not make the mistakes which bring the downward spiral and heartache. He writes with a fervency of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that never forsakes him and the joy of living a life of hope and expectancy for good things to come. He entered the ministry as a teenager by serving as a pastor on a full time basis being the youngest full time pastor in the state of Texas at the time. He faced the challenges of bringing comfort to others, preaching God’s word, and leading others into unity with Christian beliefs and practices for more than thirty years. When he hit the devastation of losing a child and then temporarily losing the rest of his family in divorce, he then found recovery and reconciliation.