Over the past several days, there have been countless tributes, tens of thousands of comments, and even national attention focused on Trooper Michael Pahira.
His family needs privacy and time to grieve, even though the reality is that time to grieve is never really there, and privacy is rarely ever honored in moments like these, especially now as news broke about the driver of the truck that killed him and his status..
Mike was an honest man who possessed chivalry, an old-fashioned sense of right and wrong, a genuine joy for life, and a unique way of helping people in need. As we now all know, Mike Pahira was tragically killed when a truck struck him during a traffic stop along Interstate 81.
But that is not why this post is being written. That story will play out as it already has been… It proper legal process will happen, and eventually a verdict will be reached for the person responsible. But there were other people there that day who deserve to be remembered too. A group of construction workers made the decision to run directly toward the scene despite the flames and the obvious danger. They pulled Mike from the wreckage in the hope that somehow they could save his life.
It is an eerie feeling. When the news first broke, I and many others who knew him were overcome with emotion for days. That emotion will continue for his closest friends and family. It is now public that Mike had been caring for his mother as she battles cancer, and it has also become very clear that nobody, absolutely nobody, had a bad thing to say about Mike.
Because you couldn’t.
He had a maturity beyond his years, and he was simply one of those rare people who left you feeling like the world was a little more right after speaking with him.
Josh Shapiro gave a beautiful tribute in the immediate moments after Mike’s death, when Mike’s watch had ended. But I found myself especially struck by one story that emerged afterward. The night before his death, Mike made fajitas for his mother and father, and he made sure his mother received the steak fajitas because he knew that while fighting cancer, her iron levels needed to stay up.
That story, that one small story, tells you everything about who Mike was.
May he rest in peace for eternity and receive every reward that the afterlife can possibly offer, whatever that afterlife may be and wherever it is that we all eventually go. For now people here are going to miss him here.
His brothers in the Sate Police. His colleagues. His family. His friends. And the citizens of Pennsylvania who were treated with fairness and dignity by Trooper Pahira.
No, life is not fair. Yes, people are taken far sooner than they should be. And Mike has now been added to that heartbreaking list.
For the most part, the people who knew him have been waiting for this nightmare to somehow end.
But the truth is, it doesn’t.
Instead, as life moves forward, we simply find ways to cope, ways to exist, and ways to honor the life he lived.
Trooper Pahira will not be forgotten..
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