Remarkable and poignant, from CNN:
Tuesday night was supposed to be a high point of Annabelle Pomeroy’s year. Months ago, the 14-year-old was cast in her first play, Seguin Independent School District’s production of Elf The Musical. She was beyond excited to have not only a speaking role, but a dancing part, too, her parents said. Her moment in the spotlight would never come. She was killed, along with 24 other people and an unborn child, when a gunman opened fire at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, on November 5. Her parents, First Baptist Church Pastor Frank Pomeroy and his wife, Sherri, were unexpectedly reminded of the play in a Facebook post. Moments like those shake them out of their new normal and send them into a tailspin, Frank Pomeroy told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “She loved deeply. She loved everybody,” he said of their adopted daughter. “She had no maliciousness.” That’s their life now, a winding road of highs and lows. In the month since the shooting, the couple has attended 12 funerals and spent countless hours in hospitals and the homes of victims’ families. And, they’ve seen acts of goodwill as the community has come together, and lapsed members returned to the church. As Pomeroy describes it, life is like a hula hoop with a thorn stuck in it. “Every now and then the thorn sticks you and you’ll cry, but you’ve got to keep hula-hooping and eventually the thorn will wear down some,” he said. One thing is certain, he said. His faith is stronger than ever after the shooting. “If I give up on the mission now, that means those 26 died in vain,” he said. “The whole 15 years I’ve been a pastor, [God’s] been preparing me. This is my Super Bowl, if you will. God said, ‘OK, let’s see where you’re at.'”
And today we celebrate...