“I spent my first five minutes crying and then I couldn’t get it off fast enough” said fifty-year old Gary Weddle, a middle school teacher in Ephreta, Washington, explaining how he shaved his beard for the first time since the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York on September 11th, 2011.
Weddle said after his friends told him that bin Laden had been killed, he had a good cry then, clipped and shaved off his 15 inch beard. “I’m still very emotional about all this. About all the death and destruction. I’m finally getting closure on this.”
Weddle had vowed not to shave again until Osama bin Laden was captured or killed, and was filled with joy on Sunday night when he heard the man who had caused the death of over 3,000 men women, and children on September 11th had been killed. Gary Weddle’s wife, Donita, had objected to her husband’s beard in the past so she also had more reason to overjoyed upon hearing of bin Laden’s death. “I respected his passion and keeping a vow. I was willing to look past the beard because I love him” she said.
