Small towns are friendly places where people sit on their front porches and chat with the neighbors. Children play hop scotch and catch in the yard. Small towns are safe places, but that changed for one small town in Georgia on September 12th of this year.
There is a small town in Georgia where all is quiet and serene. There are big shade trees on every block. People sit on their porches every evening. Passers-by by wave and chat. The school house sits in the middle of town and nobody has any thought of their child being harmed. They never have been. They don’t worry about break-ins either. Most have never locked their doors and certainly don’t have burglar alarms. It’s just the way you would expect any small town in Georgia to be.
But it all changed the evening of September 12 of this year. A young woman and her male companion were at home. They had given shelter to a young homeless man who was there at the time, and another friend was visiting them when all hell broke loose. Two men burst into the house with guns. The woman shouted at them to get out of the house as one of them shot her in the mouth. Her companion lunged at the gunman knocking the gun out of his hand, was shot in the chest and knocked to the floor. He managed to get back to his feet but the other gunman shot him in the chest twice. He fell back mortally wounded.
One of the other men was grazed in the head with a bullet and the second shot in the back of the head while they were trying to get out the door. The one who was grazed with a bullet ran to a neighbor’s house and had them call 911, but by that time the two gunmen had escaped. The woman (Mellisa Smith) was air-lifted to Grady Hospital in Atlanta. She remains in critical condition. The man with the wound to the head was taken to a hospital, stayed over-night and was released the next day. The bullet went in the back of his head and came out over his ear, missing all vital areas. The woman’s companion (Ronnie Ferguson) bled out all his life’s blood on the scene. He remained on the floor while the police secured all evidence. His dead body could be seen by concerned neighbors gathered outside.
Mellisa and Ronnie were well known in this small town. Their door was always open to all their friends and neigbors. They never thought it could happen to them. Melisa’s doctors have told her family not to let her know Ronnie is dead if she should ever be able to ask. Right now the tubes running down her throat and throughout her body are her lifeline. So is the halo, with steel rods inserted into her head to keep it immobile. We still have hope that she will recover. Mellisa is a tough little nut and she has guts. If anybody can do it Mellisa can. Mellisa is my brother’s youngest daughter.
oh my, this is terrible indeed. You and your family will also be in my prayers always. God Bless You! 
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