"To Grandmother's House, We Go," A Not So Happy Christmas Saga Involving Guns in Florida
A Deadly Argument Over Christmas Presents
There's a 1992 film called "To Grandmother's House We Go," starring the Olsen Twins. It's a comedy, though; the jokes were far too few. A Thanksgiving song, "Over The River And Through The Wood," features the second line, "To Grandmother's House We Go." That song was festive, whereas this tale is not. Going to my grandmother's was always associated with fun. It's where we held Christmas dinner and ended up after Halloween (my grandparents lived two blocks away). There were always freshly baked Toll House chocolate chip cookies in a large jar shaped like Mother Hubbard's shoe. Because they were two blocks away, my brothers and I often dropped by unannounced, but the cookies were always there.
The current story is set in Largo, FL, on Christmas Eve. Abrielle Baldwin planned to leave her six-year-old son and eleven-month-old baby boy with their grandmother while she went to work on Christmas Eve. Before going to work, Abrielle took her younger brother's Christmas shopping. Damarcus Coley, 14, got upset that his brother, Darcus Coley, 15, was getting more gifts than him. I can picture my brothers and I arguing over a perceived discrepancy in gifts received. What happened next is beyond my comprehension.