I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Roger and Sharon Diaz for every second of my life that I can remember. Not because they were blood relatives, but because the Diaz family lived on the opposite corner of the street one block from me as I grew up in North View.

 

They were like most of my neighbors at the time in what now seems like a forgotten era. The neighbors watched out for you. They talked to you. They respected your family and your family respected them. They would give you a six-pack of pop bottles so you could have the change on the deposit. Heck, most had the green light to discipline you as well.

 

Roger and Sharon Diaz still live in that same brick house on that same corner. Like it was when I was a kid, it remains immaculately clean with a beautiful, overflowing garden in the summer whose bounty Roger gladly shares with friends and family.

 

What I remember most as a kid was that Roger Diaz was a towering man. He, along with his wife, were both exceptionally kind. They were kind to everyone. The phrase “good people” was meant for them. As I approach 50, it’s still the same whenever I see them. They’re still “good people.”

 

Sharon Diaz was an educator who was and remains a proponent of reading. Roger, outside of his professional career, was a public servant on many fronts, including a long stint as Harrison County Commissioner. Today, he still serves on the Benedum Airport Authority where he’s played a huge part in turning the North Central West Virginia Airport into Bridgeport in the state’s fasting growing airport.

 

Roger and I still greet each other as “neighbor” when we see one another, almost exclusively at the Airport Authority meetings. He’ll ask about my family and I ask about his and we joke around a bit before he gets down to business.

 

For those thinking this is me simply waxing nostalgic about a family from my neighborhood that I grew up in, I really wish it was just that. I really wish everything what transpired that led to this blog had never happened. It goes without saying the Diaz family does too.

 

Instead, I’m wanting to paint as quickly as I can who Roger and Sharon Diaz are. I want you to understand that they aren’t simply a family. They are the best of families. And when you come to the end of this blog, you’ll see why they will always remain in that category.

 

On Wednesday, I received a press release from Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny. The headline read “Cold Case” and the name of the person arrested as I quickly scanned it was a William Clyde Jeffries. It didn’t ring a bell and so I began the process of getting it ready for the Web site.

 

As I read on, I literally went numb. The cold case was one I never thought would be brought up again. As I typed, I punched in the following: Conrad Roger “C.R.”

 

I stopped. I knew the next word was Diaz. I looked down and there it was. It was followed by the words he was 7 at the time he was murdered.

 

Suddenly, I was numb. Mentally, I was 12 years old again. This was not only something I remembered, but something I was close to back when it took place in 1981. The murder happened at a park every neighborhood kid frequented. The day it happened it simply seemed like a day where there was a kid missing and we had to find him. In fact, I was joined by Doug Sprouse and we went about searching for him like everyone else did. I remember seeing Roger and Sharon searching for their son as well along with everyone else.

 

Perhaps we were too young, or maybe at that time a missing child for any length was a big deal, but the fact that dozens were looking – including police – wasn’t too much of a concern. Eventually, I headed home until the news broke that the young child was found dead.

 

The same inquisitive little boy who was usually in his yard playing with toys and always asked you to play with his toys with him as we rode our bikes for fun or for a trip up the street to the iconic Fuzzy’s market, had been killed. We learned Wednesday, it was William Clyde Jeffries. The neighborhood kids and everyone else knew him as “Willie,” thus the reason the name didn’t ring a bell as I first scanned the press release.

 

As I begrudgingly finished getting the word out I slumped in my chair. This hit close to home emotionally and brought back suppressed memories of a time in my life – and I'm sure it did for so many others when they found out – where my innocence had been robbed. As I pulled myself together, my thoughts went to where they needed to be and that was with Roger and Sharon Diaz. My mind raced to their daughter Chrisanne, a few years older than me who managed to land every good trait her parents had to offer.

 

What they were going through was of significance. How it impacted me was trivial.

 

For the next several hours, I spent time fielding calls, messages and texts from friends and others wanting to know more. Each time, the end of those inquiries went back to wondering about the Diaz family. After all, it had been 36 years since their son left this earth and as much as I was churning, I couldn’t fathom – and perhaps part of me didn’t want to – what they were enduring.

 

Then, in my Facebook news feed there was a post from Roger and Sharon. I stopped and read it. I read it a second time.

 

I was numb again. This time, for a very different reason. This time, for every reason that is good.

 

The Diaz’s talked about the situation. The post, you will see below. The thing to take from the entire situation is that, already, they had forgiven the man who allegedly had admitted to killing their son.

 

They talked about their faith that helped them get there. They talked about the power of prayer and they publicly opened up how they managed to survive the situation that took place 36 years earlier.

 

If you haven’t already, I ask you to read their response to what developed Wednesday. It proved to me, not that I ever had a doubt, that nearly 50 years after I first likely saw Roger and Sharon Diaz that they are everything I thought they were.

 

Roger Diaz was then, and remains today, a giant of a man for more than his physical presence. As I also already knew, Sharon Diaz is a giant of a woman.

 

I don’t know if I could take the path the Diaz family took this week. I know others would struggle as well and had they not taken that path, no one would blame them.

 

Yet, deep down I’m not surprised they took the path less traveled. They not only forgave the man who has claimed to have killed their son, they asked that the same man find forgiveness for himself as well.

 

Amazing that on a day I was trying to think of what I needed to say when I saw Roger or his wife the next time to provide some form of comfort, they instead comforted me. If you don’t believe that’s a gift from God, at least believe it’s a gift in the form of a lesson we could all take to heart in matters much less serious than this.

 

Thank you Roger and Sharon for that gift. Thank you for showing us a lesson in grace in its most beautiful form.

 

Editor's Note: Photo above of Roger and Sharon Diaz courtesy of their Facebook page. The post below is a copy of their post on both of their Facebook accounts.