Troy Sides
Feature Editor

A month and a half after interviewing the “Birdman” of Mesa State, old Edward Gillman remains consistent to his route, arriving at the driveway of the ACB parking lot every morning around 9:30 a.m. to feed his birds. Each time I see him I wave, try to say hi, and he does little more than acknowledge my presence, locking eyes with me for but a moment, being reminded of that strange journalist that asked him a few questions once.

But Sunday afternoon, my perspective of our beloved Birdman changed. I was editing my story for this week’s issue of the Criterion when I received a phone call. My cell phone has this neat little ability to recognize the destination of the call, and I saw that I was receiving a call from someone in Washington state.

“Hello,” said a soft voice on the other line. “You don’t know me, and this feels a little weird, but my name is Tracy and I live in Seattle, Washington. My family and I have been searching for my uncle off and on for the last 21 years, and for a while we’ve just assumed he was dead.”

Tracy paused, and I was really beginning to wonder where this conversation would go. “Yes,” I said. “Go on.”

“Well,” Tracy continued, “We googled his name, and we found the YouTube video you made of Birdman. That’s my uncle.”

I nearly fell off my chair. For the next few minutes I answered several questions from Tracy, whose rattled voice made it clear her and her family were still getting over the fact that her uncle is, after all, alive. Tracy’s plan is to talk things over with her family, who will most likely make a trip to Grand Junction to reunite with their this long lost member of their family.

How many people pass by Edward Gillman everyday, be they on the Mesa State campus or on Main Street, and think nothing of this dirty, rugged man tossing bird seed on the sidewalk? It’s almost second nature for us to brush men like him off without thinking anything of it, completely oblivious to the fact that every human, no matter how dirty he looks or how few people he talks to, are always loved somewhere by someone. I can only hope that I am there to witness this beautiful reunion between the Birdman and his niece, and that they reunite on campus, in between classes, so that all can see that even the Birdman is worth loving.