‘Pow! There was a gunshot’

For Oceanside native Suzi Hileman, the shooting in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8 wasn’t a national call for stricter gun control. It wasn’t about changing political rhetoric, or even about better handling the mentally ill.

For Hileman, it was all about the death of her 9-year-old friend Christina Taylor Green.

“The story is not about ‘he who should be slapped,’” said Hileman in a phone interview, referring to Jared Loughner, who was charged with the shooting. “The story is about an older woman and a young girl sharing in American politics. I’m opening her eyes to what could be. It was Tucson on a sunny Saturday morning.”

‘We were friends for life’

Hileman, 58, left for Cornell after graduating from Oceanside High School in 1969, and since then had lived in Chicago and California before settling in Tucson with her husband, Bill. She clearly remembers meeting Christina a few years ago. The girl’s family had just moved to Tucson, a few doors away from the Hilemans. Christina’s mother, Roxanna Green, sent an e-mail to all of her new neighbors, inquiring about friends for her children, babysitters and a cleaning lady and to apologize for the dumpster in their front yard.

“And I said, ‘I have a cleaning lady, nothing else,’” Hileman recounted. “‘But Bill and I watch a lot of sports. If you like sports, maybe we can offer you friendship.’”

So, one Sunday, Roxanna and her husband, John, along with their son, Dallas, and Christina, visited the Hilemans. “And there’s Christina, 6 or 7 years old, and she was bored,” said Hileman.

So she took Christina to the game closet to find something easy to play. The two chose Pick Up Sticks, and sat down to play.

“And then she says, ‘Mommy, tell Mrs. Suzi about …’ something or other,” Hileman said. “And so I look over to Roxanna, Roxanna tells me the story, and I look back and all the yellow [sticks] are on top.”

This prompted Roxanna to scold her daughter, while John and Bill barely contained their laughter. “They’re trying to let Roxanna do the discipline, but Christina has this face on like, ‘Moi? Have I done something?’” said Hileman. Then she decided that two could play that game.