A Solemn Walk Through Highland Park One Year After Parade Massacre
A year ago, the Rev. Hernan Cuevas was just a few days into his tenure as pastor of a Roman Catholic parish in Highland Park when the parade took place. Mr. Cuevas had rounded up congregants for the church float and bought granola bars to hand out to people along the route. Then he heard what sounded like fireworks.
He said it was not until he saw “a wave of people walking toward us, running, crying” that “we thought, ‘These are not fireworks. This is for real.’”
They fled a couple of blocks to the church, where a mix of members and other paradegoers, some with blood on their clothes, waited for hours while the authorities searched for the gunman. They prayed the rosary. They looked nervously at the news on their phones.
Mr. Cuevas said his congregants had processed the trauma from that day differently, and had different ideas about how to observe this Fourth of July. Some wanted to return to normal. Some wanted space to grieve. Others left town for the holiday, seeking distance from the pain.
“It brings back again some of the memories,” Mr. Cuevas said of the anniversary. “It triggers some of the emotions of loss and fear.”
Source: The New York Times
