A senseless shooting of a young Norman airman seven years ago showed the worst of humanity. An Indiana woman's re-connecting with the young man whom she knew in high school has brought out the best and rallied a community behind the injured veteran.
"I want everyone to know there are still good people out there," Rachel Weedn said this past week as she prepared for volunteer contractors to take over the north Norman home she shares with her son Bryan David Weedn.
Workers will be putting down new flooring, remodeling a bedroom, widening doors, fixing electrical glitches, painting, installing new blinds and making other repairs to the Weedns' home.
It all came about when former Norman resident Martha Chagnon inquired about David's condition. She knew he had been the victim of a shooting and was 100 percent disabled.
The two attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints together and were friends in high school. David, she wrote, was a rock for her in some troubled teen-age years. Now married to a former Marine and living in Indiana, Chagnon found David Weedn on Facebook a few weeks ago.
Martha and her husband, Patrick Chagnon, drove to Norman over the Memorial Day weekend and decided their 10th wedding anniversary gift to each other would be coming to Norman to work on the home David shares with his mother. They're bringing some help along, too.
"Instead of a gift, we'd like to do an act of service," she wrote in a letter to the Weedns.
The Norman Lowe's store has climbed aboard, too. They are donating flooring, paint, new appliances, a garage door opener and other materials. Some employees have signed on to help with the project.
Embassy Suites Hotel will donate rooms for the workers who were planning to pitch tents and stay on the grounds of Chagnon's grandparents. McAlester's, Chick-Fil-A, Raising Canes, Subway and Rib Crib are catering lunches for the volunteer workers. Their church will provide nightly dinners.
"He is just amazed that there are so many people willing to help him," Rachel Weedn said.
The Veterans Administration's rules on home remodeling reimbursement put the Weedns in a tight spot. They would only have enough money to do some of the needed repairs and they couldn't do one area without doing another.
"We were caught between a rock and a hard place. We couldn't do it all," Rachel Weedn said.
"This has all happened so fast," she said. "I'm just overwhelmed at the generosity and support, the love and outpouring of help. I've spent seven years since the shooting trying to get some things done."
The shooting came after a night out with friends from Tinker Air Force Base where Staff Sgt. Weedn was stationed. James A. Prather shot Weedn with a 9 mm pistol. A slug remains imbedded in Weedn's head.
"The doctors say it was a miracle that he survived," Rachel Weedn said. He spent weeks at the OU Medical Center in ICU, then various rehab hospitals before coming home.
Prathi was sentenced to more than 300 years in prison. Jurors didn't want him ever to come up for parole. He was on parole from Minnesota when he shot Weedn, who had recently returned from an overseas deployment.
David communicates with his family and friends by acknowledging words as letters are recited from a typewriter keyboard. He told his mother he'd rather be working than watching others help him.
"He just looks for the joy that he can find," Weedn says of her son. "If he gets depressed, I don't see it."
Andy Rieger 366-3543 editor@normantranscript.com
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Friends, businesses join to help disabled Norman veteran
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