ANTOINETTE TUFF: STORYTELLER

MEET THE WOMAN WHO PREVENTED A MASS SHOOTING
MEET THE BOOKKEEPER WHO STOPPED GA SCHOOL SHOOTER
THE 911 CALL


This is not a joke
He was willing to kill
because he had 
no reason to live, he said
a hurting young man
He had an AK 47
She had prayer and a story

She told him stories, Jaha
We keep thinking the stories
are making no difference
we have so many dead bodies
laying at our feet to prove it
but Antoinette had stories
as the un-weapon, the opposite
of a AK 47, the nonviolent
answer to body bags was
a story about losing her husband
of 33 years, of grief, of how
she and the gunman could be
kin since her mother's birth name
is the same as the would-be
killer--suicide by cops after
you take out a school full
of future leaders--

I just prayed, Antoinette said
I just told him stories
compassion, composure
she told him stories
and just kept talking
to him--she knew
the power of stories
he was agitated
cold and loading
clips... she was sitting there
"bullets don't have a name"
terrified and praying in
her heart while she just
kept telling stories
with love. "I loved him," she said.

She didn't know his name
when she looked at him
and loved him and that love
overcame her terror and
Love told her what stories
to tell; she knew nothing
about him except he was
human--not the monster
we would imagine him 
to be--human, with a story
he was ready to take her life
and his and so many others
but his story heard her 
story and the love
pluming out like smoke
over barbeque

She loved him, terrified but loving
"we're not gonna hate you, baby"
"It's a good thing, you're giving up"
She didn't know his name
nothing about him
except human, sick, scared
ready to die, but she loved him
and told him stories

Valerie Bridgeman
© August 22, 2013