Kelly Tinyes Balloon Memorial at Grant Park.

Sunday March 4th 2012, 23 years after her murder, a small gathering of high school friends, neighbors and family gathered at Grant Park, they come from all walks of life and still remember one person, someone who was taken from them without warning. No area resident for the past 20 years could forget the death of young Kelly Ann Tinyes, age 13, who was last seen walking into a neighbor’s home, just a few doors down from hers. Her body was found the next day, she had been murdered. Robert Golub was tried, convicted and has been serving time for the crime in the Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate New York. To this day he maintains his innocence.

Kelly’s murder left a scar on the lives of those who surrounded her in junior high, and lingers on into their adult lives, some of the now mid 30's mothers, being over protective of their young, many back then unable to sleep and some needed counseling. Yet they never forgot their friend, and near the date of her murder and her birthday just a few days apart, gather and release balloons into the sky, a simple gesture, of unending friendship and loyalty. Some bringing their own children who let go of the mostly pink balloons on this breezy early March day. They hugged, chatted, and for a few minutes were young again, remembering the birthday parties, school days and sleepovers, because their friend, who was 13 never made into adulthood, never made it to graduation and never made it to motherhood, so her friends return to her, at a place where they played, skated and lived their early years with her, Grant Park. The balloons slowly floating northbound, and after a few smiles, more hugs and small children running around the small field, Kelly's old friends return to their busy lives most driving away in parent friendly minivans, as a wave of pink dots floats above.