No relief until dad hears kids' voices

I cut off the friend on the other end of the cell phone, and asked if I could call him back.

I was in a meeting and would get right back to him.

"Do you know why I'm calling? Did you hear?"

There was a shooting at NIU, he said. Are your kids safe, he asked.

I don't know.

Dazed, I hung up the phone, turned toward the employees in my office, and tried to restart the meeting. Terrible, sickening thoughts run through your mind in that cold moment. We ended the meeting quickly.

I picked up the phone and started dialing.

First Erica, a senior nursing major. No answer.

Then, Nick, a sophomore math major. No answer.

Then, home.

My wife had heard about the shooting and was bombarded by calls from friends, neighbors and family. She got through to Erica, who reported she was safe in her apartment.

No answer from Nick.

I hung up and dialed him again. No answer.

The calls came from co-workers, employees, a friend with a daughter at NIU, and my sister in Pittsburgh.

"Are your kids OK?" they wanted to know.

So did I.

Relief came 30 minutes or so later. Nick called to say he was safely locked down in the computer science building. Cell reception is terrible in that building, he said, and he was frantically trying to get word to family that he was OK.

"Where was the shooting?" he asked.

Cole Hall, I said.

"I was there this morning," he said quietly.