Among the hundreds of tributes that filled Capt. Herb Emory’s online guest book, one stood out.
“Herb has been a great friend. I cannot say enough about how he has helped my wife and I thru the toughest situation a parent can ever face …” Paul Letalien of Acworth wrote.
Those few words, resonant with love and sadness, promised a powerful story. And what a story it proved to be: of hope, constancy and courage in the face of terrible grief.
Herb Emory, who died of a heart attack last Saturday, was known to hundreds of thousands of Atlantans for helping to steer them through traffic. He came almost out of the blue to help Paul Letalien find his bearings amid personal tragedy.
The AJC’s Victoria Loe Hicks reports in Sunday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on myajc.com.
More must reads in this weekend’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution and myajc.com:
Haunting memories of Boston
Atlanta attorney Rick Boyd was about to finish the Boston Marathon last year when the bomb went off. The carnage he saw then was unspeakable, but there was something else even more frightening: Boyd’s wife, Tara, wasn’t far ahead of him in the race, and now he didn’t know where she was. Staff writer Craig Schneider reports in Saturday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on myajc.com.
Hidden costs of the Braves’ move
When Cobb County and the Braves announced the team’s move to the Cobb’s Cumberland/Galleria region, local officials promised that the county’s taxpayers would be on the hook for just so much of the cost, and no more. Guess what? Staff writers Dan Klepal and Brad Schrade report on Sunday.
APS considers a big gamble
The Atlanta school system has one of the worst pension liabilities in, well, the world. To bridge the enormous gap between what the school district has and what it will need, APS is considering floating more than a half-a-trillion dollars in bonds. But the experts say it’s too big a gamble. Staff writers Mark Niesse and Russell Grantham report on Sunday.
Homeless shelters closing
Fulton County is closing two shelters for the homeless, including one that’s just two years old and serves women and children only. The county has decided it simply can’t afford to run them anymore. Staff writer Bill Torpy reports on Sunday.
