Goodby to Son Turned Out to Be Forever : Family: Matthew Blek left for New York last Memorial Day. His violent death there stirred his parents to action for gun control.

Mary Leigh Blek last saw her 21-year-old son, Matthew, alive exactly a year ago today when he boarded a train bound for an exploratory summer in New York City.

On that Memorial Day, Matthew’s grinning face grew foggy as he waved goodby with his palms and nose pressed against the train’s glass window.

Never did Mary Leigh Blek imagine that that was Matthew’s final departure from her world.

The Cal State Fresno student’s life was cut short last summer in New York when three teen-agers allegedly shot and killed him during an attempted robbery.

While families will honor those who died defending their country this Memorial Day, Mary Leigh and Charlie Blek will revisit that same Fullerton train station today and lay a bouquet of flowers in remembrance of their son.

“Perhaps another young man on his way to his own adventure will see the flowers and never have to face gun violence,” Mary Leigh Blek said.

Matthew Blek, a free-spirited honors physics and math student, loved the wilderness and wrestling. When not poring over math problems, he climbed hillsides with his walking stick and played the violin.

He originally attended Humboldt State University for its wrestling team and the towering trees and lush landscapes that surrounded the campus. But when the school cut its wrestling program, Matthew Blek transferred to Cal State Fresno for its highly rated team.

After completing his junior year, Blek decided to ride the train cross-country to spend the summer in New York. He departed that Memorial Day eager to experience the East Coast, the urban life and break away from Mission Viejo, his parents explained.

Once in the Big Apple, he roomed in a Manhattan apartment, learned how to play the electric guitar and worked in a realtor’s office, where he met a girlfriend.

On June 29, the two were walking back from a date. Three armed 15-year-olds approached the pair and attempted to rob Matthew at gunpoint. As he was reaching for his wallet, one boy shot him in the eye and chest and the trio fled.

Police later reported that the youths also had killed a 37-year-old man 90 minutes before. Two of the boys were sentenced last February to 3 1/3 years in state prison after a plea bargain. Mary Leigh Blek will fly to New York next month to attend the trial for the third teen-ager who allegedly fired the gun.

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Now, a year after Matthew’s death, the Blek family says the pain has not eased as they continue to cope. But Mary Leigh Blek said she has diverted her anger into founding a grass-roots organization, the Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence.

Since March, she and her group have been on letter-writing campaigns and traveling across the country to push for gun control and safety policies.

“Everything I do is to honor Matthew,” Mary Leigh Blek said. “I don’t want any other family to go through this.”

Her major fight now is against the Republican-led bill to repeal the federal assault weapons ban. Congress is expected to vote on the bill in September.

Until then, a corner of her home has been transformed into the group’s central station, where faxes and phones calls are received at every hour. Charlie Blek tackles the letter- and speech-writing tasks at his private law office in Laguna Hills.

During the past two months, she and other activists have organized weekly vigils, picketing a Newport Beach intersection near the office of U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox, a Republican who opposes gun control legislation.

She shuttled up and down the state to share Matthew’s story with a string of anti-violence groups, with Orange County educators, and at state Senate hearings and universities.

Her spirits are buoyed by small victories, such as a recent state Senate passage of a ban on so-called Saturday night specials and other inexpensive handguns.

The youth who shot Matthew Blek carried .380-caliber pistol, a palm-size Saturday night special.

“The gun that was used to kill Matthew was probably manufactured in our own back yard,” Mary Leigh Blek said.

Southern California companies, including Bryco Arms in Costa Mesa, manufactured an estimated 685,943 handguns in 1992, accounting for more than 80% of the Saturday night specials produced in the United States.

Blek said she isn’t advocating an elimination of all guns, but wants to restrict the availability of weapons and enforce firearms safety measures.

“I am a lifelong Republican,” Blek said, denouncing the political wrangling over gun control. “This is not a party issue. This is a bipartisan, common sense, safety and public health issue.”

Aside from her anti-gun violence campaign, Blek takes care of her invalid mother-in-law and her two other children, Timothy and Maren, ages 21 and 17, respectively.

The Bleks, whose community activism originated in PTA and school booster groups, say they were “involuntarily recruited” into fighting firearms control.

Grief still overwhelms her, and she says Matthew’s lost life will never be justified.

“Joy has been taken away from my life,” Blek said. “I may find happiness sometimes, but I don’t think I’ll ever find joy again.”

She said she finds comfort in keeping busy with educating the public about gun violence. And to escape her whirlwind schedule, she visits Matthew’s grave at El Toro Memorial Park Cemetery almost every other day. This is her private time to be with her eldest son and tend to the potted flowers and 10 pounds of grass seeds that sprout around his gravestone.

“Matthew will always be a part of our family,” she said staring at a photograph resting on their living room mantle of a young Matthew, with his doe-like brown eyes twinkling. “His essence continues through my work.”