‘It’s still very raw.’ Families come together six years after tragic Parkland shooting
Right after she lit a candle to commemorate the sixth anniversary of her 14-year-old son Luke’s death, Gena Hoyer touched her chest.
“I always touch my heart when I think of Luke and the other 16. It’s the first thing I grab when I’m thinking of them; I grab my heart,” she later said about the moment, as a tear rolled from her right eye.
“I miss him very, very much,” she added, touching her heart again.
On Wednesday, six years after a former student shot and killed 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus in Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018, the grieving families and other community members gathered in nearby Coral Springs to remember the 14 students and three staffers.
About 200 people attended a “Forever in Our Hearts” ceremony at Eagles’ Haven, a wellness center opened in March 2019 to foster healing. The event, an annual tradition, featured the release of 17 doves and the lighting of 17 candles, and other activities that reflected each of the victims’ individual passions, like watching an Irish dance in honor of Cara Loughran’s love of culture, and exercising in honor of Scott Beigel’s love of fitness.
Gena Hoyer, who arrived with her husband Tom Hoyer, said that as time passes and the initial numbness wears off more and more, the pain worsens. But seeing the other families helps.
“We lean on each other for support and love,” she said. “We’re always there for each other.”
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Those relationships among the family members was evident when they all hugged each other after lighting each candle inside a crystal vase with each victim’s name in red. They sparked the flames one by one, as “Forever” by Kenny Loggins played in the background. The audience sniffled and sighed, accompanying them.
Sarah Franco, the executive director Eagles’ Haven, led the group in three deep breaths, as some closed their eyes.
“Six years ago, on 2/14, for our community, but especially for the victims’ families, the world stopped, and our hearts broke into a million pieces, and we felt that we had lost our ability to breathe. And again today our hearts literally ache for the families because their pain will never end, and their hearts are and will always be broken,” Franco said.
“For six years, however, by loving and supporting one another, we have somehow found a way to get to this day and keep breathing through the pain,” she continued. “Sometimes we need a reminder to breathe, and I would think that today is one of those days, so let’s take three deep breaths together as one community to send our strength to one another.”
The group breathed in an out, and then walked over a few feet toward the two wooden cages with 17 white birds inside. As some of the family members opened them, Lori Alhadeff hugged her husband, Ilan Alhadeff. They lost their daughter Alyssa in the tragedy.
“It’s a sad day for me. It’s a very difficult day for me,” Lori Alhadeff said about the anniversary. “It’s still very raw.”
Alhadeff, who got an 8 tattooed on her wrist to symbolize her daughter’s soccer jersey, said she wants everyone to know she will keep trying to make schools safer. The former teacher was elected to the Broward County School Board after the shooting and currently serves as the board chair.
Broward Public Schools Superintendent Peter Licata, who on Wednesday morning visited the Stoneman Douglas campus to deliver a wreath and Coral Springs Middle after to paint rocks with kids, echoed Alhadeff’s sentiment.
“We have to figure out how to change that,” he said. “This wasn’t my reality when I was going to school but it’s kids’ reality nowadays. So we have to figure out where we went wrong and how to fix it.”
He also praised the community for coming together.
“It’s impressive how the community keeps doing this, and it’s something that has to continue,” he said.
As the event attendees sauntered around the event, eating the 17’s favorite foods, like Luke Hoyer’s chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A and Alexander Schachter’s nutella crepes, Ellen Enoch-Marx petted a pony, to pay tribute to Meadow Pollack’s love of horses.
Enoch-Marx, a 67-year-old Coral Springs resident, said she visited Eagles’ Haven on Wednesday to comfort the affected families.
“These people have lost their loved ones in a horrific crime,” said the retiree from Memorial Hospital. “They need our support.”
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