Carole Brodmerkel of Lyndora was helping close up at her uncle's doughnut business on Nov. 22, 1963, when she heard that President Kennedy had been shot.

I remember as if it was just yesterday. I was helping to close up shop at my uncle’s doughnut business that Friday. After noon sometime, I turned on the noon news and saw the devastating headline “President Kennedy shot in Dallas.”

I rushed home to be certain my mother had the TV on and found my brother visiting with her. Together the three of us watched and heard Walter Cronkite’s emotional “President Kennedy has died.”

My mother cried out “Oh those poor little children.” meaning Caroline and John Jr. My brother kicked a foot stool. I felt the air sucked out of me, like a kick in the stomach.

Just such a shocking, deep and profound horror and sadness. Just as I felt on 9-11. And for the next four days I sat glued to the heartbreaking scene’s that played out on the TV screen.

I can still remember the sound of the horse’s hooves on the pavement, the sight of three year old John Jr. saluting his father’s casket.

I wrote a eulogy for President Kennedy and sent it in to the Butler Eagle. It was published along with other “Letters to the Editor.”

I received phone calls from strangers who read it just to talk about the death of our young president, to share our sorrow.

I often wonder if now, our world perhaps would be a bit different if JFK had lived? We, of course, will never know, but to me the wondering will always be with me.

Carole E. BrodmerkelLyndora