I wrote “Dante’s 9” end of 2012 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I was shocked and devastated. I can’t imagine being one of those parents. Getting a call, hearing that there was a mass shooting in the school, finding out that your child was among the twenty that this man killed.
How should one continue living after that?
The worst thing is that one does. One continues living, knowing that their child is dead, and they will never ever be able see her or him again. No parent should have to experience that.
I was so shocked, so sad, so angry when the news broke. And I wrote this story in the grip of my anger and sadness. When I was finished, I read through the story again, but then realized that what those parents needed, what they wanted (what I would need if I was in their place) was simply their child back. I wouldn’t care about the soul of the perpetrator or what happens to him in Hell. I would just want my child back.
There is no eye-for-an-eye in such a devastating event. This is simply bottom-of-the-ocean deep, burning, everlasting sorrow that no one can ever erase.
I know this doesn’t even scratch the surface of it, but this story is dedicated to the parents of Sandy Hook massacre and all other parents who lost their child due to the terrible tragedy.
