Halley’s Comet
By Darrell Sharpe
During my many years of serving my time in prison I’ve had the distinct pleasure and honor of seeing two lifers get released and go home. The first man that I met was over fifty-five years old and had served thirty years in prison. And to be completely honest, I rarely talked to him in passing or on the yard because he mostly kept to himself. But the other man was a close inner circle good friend of mine who I got to know well when I first arrived here at MCI-Norfolk. Anyway, we called him “Old-Skool”, and he served twenty-eight of those years before he was pardoned by the Governor. Old-Skool was a great storyteller and was often more times than not surrounded by many comrades on the yard, talking to the homies about the old times. He always had a good sense of humor and would say things like, “This is my house, and you young kids are just visiting” or constantly complain about the youngsters by saying things like, “Stinking Pepsi generation”. So when Old-Skool got the news of his pardon, he didn’t look or seem happy or even surprised at all. He told us that he believed it when it happened and no sooner. Well, a few months later that day finally happened for Old-Skool. Two men were pardoned and released from decades of prison. The day Old-Skool left, the whole yard – blacks, whites, Hispanics and even COs, a standing ovation as he walked across the yard toward the parole gate to his new found freedom. The look on Old-Skool’s face was that of a person about to face the greatest challenge in his life. I’m sharing this with you because it’s extremely rare to see a lifer going home. The way I see it, “It’s like Halley’s Comet, every once in a great while.”
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