Hours after she escaped the Columbine High School shooting, 14-year-old Missy Mendo slept between her parents in bed, still wearing the shoes she had on when she fled her math class. She wanted to be ready to run.
Twenty-five years later, and with Mendo now a mother herself, the trauma from that horrific day remains close on her heels.
It caught up to her when 60 people were shot dead in 2017 at a country music festival in Las Vegas, a city she had visited a lot while working in the casino industry. Then again in 2022, when 19 students and two teachers were shot and killed in Uvalde, Texas.
I’m sure the fact that nothing has changed with the US attitude towards gun violence, mental health, and even to some extent bullying, lends itself to prolonged trauma.
I mean, after Sandy Hook happened and nothing substantial changed… yeah, it’s a cancer in this country.
The Hour I First Believed written by Wally Lamb does a good job of blending fiction with this tragic event.