The Daily Special Is a Large Helping of Human Kindness

Sunday is a good day to try to tell this story. Be advised, though, there’s no stirring prose up ahead, no plot twists and certainly no boffo ending. It’s a simple story about how a group of people wanted to remember a man and, beyond that, how they very much want to prove that good is stronger than evil. Like I said, Sunday is a good day to try to tell it.

The story has its roots in the kind of frightening violence that we all know is possible at any time. In this case, it came at midday March 31, a Friday, in a driveway behind a row of townhomes in Irvine. The suburban stereotype holds true here: The neighborhood is as quiet and serene as you can imagine, and on that Friday noon, 30-year-old Greg Hebdon was unloading his Toyota Landcruiser when two men drove up behind him and attempted to strong-arm him into the trunk of their car. Hebdon fought them off and sought refuge under his Toyota but was shot to death.

Needless to say, the incident, which apparently happened in little more than a minute, shattered some lives. Hebdon’s wife, Lillian, ran outside to find her husband, under the truck, dying. That day was their ninth wedding anniversary. The couple had two children, a daughter now 11 months and a son, 6, who is hearing-impaired so significantly that his vocabulary remains limited to a few words.

Adding to the tragedy was the crime’s brazenness. Besides occurring in broad daylight, one of the suspects had recently worked as a temporary employee in the carpet cleaning and home restoration business that Hebdon and his wife owned. Hebdon barely knew the man, but other workers had described him as a good worker with a pleasant disposition.

Put it all together and the circumstances of Hebdon’s death could have produced a well of hate and despair.

This is where the story really starts, because friends and Lillian Hebdon decided they won’t fill that well.

Charlie Cochrane is a 44-year-old Orange County businessman who had met Hebdon a few months earlier. They became friends to the extent that when Cochrane learned of Hebdon’s death, he was stunned. He had come to know him, Cochrane says, as an “honest, upfront, hard-working guy who loved his family” and who should be remembered.

The afternoon of Hebdon’s slaying, Cochrane began formulating a plan. What Cochrane and several others put together was a weekend in which people would patronize any of a number of local restaurants, but with a purpose in mind. Yes, the restaurants (16 eventually signed on) agreed to donate some weekend proceeds to a trust fund for Hebdon’s children, but the plan isn’t necessarily about money, Cochrane said.

“I wanted to take a weekend,” Cochrane told me last week, “where we could celebrate Greg, because he was a great person. But I also wanted it to be something we could do tangibly so when his kids get older they can see that a lot of people cared about Greg. It would be our way of saying, ‘Greg, you were a great guy.’ ”

So, July 21-23--Friday through Sunday--the plan will come to pass. A list of the restaurants, which are mostly in Irvine, accompanies this column.

I asked Cochrane how he envisioned the weekend. Maybe, he said, a neighbor could take another neighbor to dinner. Perhaps a father working too much could take out the family. Maybe someone who has owed a pal a dinner could make good on it that weekend. The best scenario of all, Cochrane said, might be a guy inviting his girlfriend to dinner and then proposing marriage.

What it’s all about, I think, is the notion that people’s best instincts can prevail over our worst instincts. Rather than dwell on the horror and senselessness of Hebdon’s death, his friends have decided to bury the potential destructiveness of anger and hate under a mountain of human kindness.

Simple plan? Sure. It’s also a very grand plan.

One participant will be Lillian Hebdon. Relatives and friends are taking her to one of the restaurants, but she’s not sure which one. “Greg wanted everybody to be happy, not sorrowful,” she said last week, holding daughter Diamond in her lap as we talked. “He wanted people to rejoice, and I can do that for him. Oh, he’s in a great place. I just need to be here for him, be his example, and do what he would do.”

Cochrane says the weekend won’t work if people merely put on a happy face that masks sadness. To have the power they want it to have, the good times must be genuine.

“It’ll be very special,” Lillian said, “because everyone who will be going out will be someone who cares about Greg, and it will be time to celebrate his life. That’s the key. We have to celebrate his life and not his death. He had the key to life. He was always there to help people, and he did exactly what we’re supposed to do--love one another.”

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The Sweet 16

(Participating Restaurants: Address)

Hof’s Hut 3966 Barranca Parkway, Irvine

Chevys Mexican Restaurant 4700 Barranca Parkway, Irvine

Ruby’s 4602 Barranca Parkway, Irvine

Irvine Pizza 5394 Walnut Ave., Irvine

Waters Restaurant 4615 Barranca Parkway, Irvine

San Remo Ristorante 16277 Laguna Canyon Road, Suite A, Irvine

Asia Cafe 4187 Campus Drive, Irvine

Sensations Dining/Dancing 1830 Main St., Irvine

Ciao Mein 17900 Jamboree Blvd., Irvine (in Hyatt Regency Irvine)

Hamburger Hamlet 4127 Campus Drive, Irvine

Bistango 19100 Von Karman Ave., Irvine

Boston Chicken 3972 Barranca Parkway, Irvine

Del Taco 25542 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo

Del Taco 4780 Irvine Blvd., Irvine

Del Taco 22401 El Toro Road, Lake Forest

Del Taco 22349 El Toro Road, Lake Forest

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.