Today there are two cities in mourning.
Nicholas was a citizen of your city--Worcester.
He was also a citizen of my city--Providence.

It was his first class, on his first day at Johnson & Wales University--taking Entrepreneurship, a class on how, to start & manage your own business, and as Nicholas told me later, it was amazing to be in college!

He told me he graduated from high school this year--1997--and he was glad he was out of high school because he said--and these are his exact words:

"In high school, I ran through a lot of problems that were disturbing (to) me (and) which I have overcome, and now I'm here at Johnson & Wales University." He WAS amazed!

His favorite sport was basketball--he'd recently read Magic Johnson's Life Story--and he also told me he thought of himself as creative--He said, "I have a weird way of thinking and I like to be original."

He drew me a picture of himself playing basketball describing it this way:

"I'm playing basketball with a soccer ball, because I'm original." Sure enough, there he is in the drawing, doing a lay-up with a soccer ball!

His favorite music was rap and reggae, and he said Nas Escobar was one of his favorite singers. Besides basketball, he loved baseball. We shared a mutual love of the New York Yankees and we both were disheartened when they didn't go all the way. But Nicholas continued to wear his Yankees cap throughout the season, including in my class.

When I asked him why he was taking my class on entrepreneurship, he said it was because he was interested in it, and because he had a dream.

Yes, Nicholas had a dream. Do you know what it was?

Nicholas had a dream of owning his own business. I asked him what kind of business would he like to own, he said it was up to his mother, but he did know it would be down south, in Florida or Virginia Beach, and he wanted to do it as soon as possible.

In class I asked him why it was up to his mother as to what kind of business he would create. And then, very seriously and looking me straight in the eyes he said, "Because my mother has done everything for me."

In a class assignment, he also wrote about his dream and wrote this:

"I want to give my parents their own business since they have done everything in their power to get me here."

The last thing I said to Nicholas before he left for the Thanksgiving holiday was "be safe." "Okay," he said, "have a nice Thanksgiving." "Same to you," I said. "I'll see you in a couple of weeks."

As he walked toward the door, he looked back at me over his left shoulder. I could see his eyes looking at me, and you know he had beautiful, very expressive eyes.

But only occasionslly did I see a smile come through them, but when he smiled it was a warm and loving smile. More often his eyes were reserved and there was a sadness in them I did not understand. Perhaps it was because the class was at 8 in the morning!

But this day, the last day I saw him, again they looked sad to me, and there in his eyes, those sad brown doe eyes, there was a look that seemed filled with the foreknowledge that where he was going, the idea of being safe would be a great challenge.

As he opened the classroom door, he looked at me across the room and said, "yeah, I'll see you," and then he walked out through the door into the hallway and was gone.

Today Nicholas is gone, but his memory will live on in me and in each of you, and in the lives of those he touched in his very short life.

To those of you who mourn Nicholas here today, May God bless you and give you comfort in this time of pain and grief knowing that God will not lay upon you more than you can endure and that he WILL make a way for you to find comfort, and then strength and renewal in your life for all the days ahead.

Let us all remember Nicholas and what he was trying to become and let us be strong in our faith that God will heal our grief and sadness over our shared loss.