A Day of Tears at Tech

A Year After 'All of Our Lives Changed,' Mourners Find Unity

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16 -- With renewed displays of campus unity and many smaller, private moments of painful tribute, Virginia Tech marked the anniversary of its darkest day Wednesday with events honoring the 32 students and faculty members gunned down in a dormitory and classrooms a year ago.

Classes were canceled, and by late morning, thousands of students in the school's orange and maroon colors gathered at the campus's central Drillfield under glaring sunshine and a cloudless sky. Students, university officials and relatives of the victims described the occasion as a painful but crucial step in a path to recovery that will last far longer than a year, if not a lifetime.

At the base of a memorial displaying 32 stones engraved with the names of the dead, university President Charles W. Steger reminded the crowd of the day "all of our lives changed."

"It began with a shock and trauma and a flood of emotions," Steger said. "And in the ensuing days and weeks and months, we have searched for answers. We have searched for meaning in what is incomprehensible. And we have searched for rest in those sleepless hours in the night when the silence has been shattered by the barrage of our own thoughts.

"We have not found everything we sought, but at every turn we have found each other," he said.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), also speaking at Tech, praised the "courage and strength" shown by victims' families. "Since that tragic day last April, the unshakeable sense of unity and hope demonstrated by the Hokies has touched the lives of people around the world," said Kaine, who declared a statewide day of remembrance.

At the heart of the morning commemoration was a list university officials read that included the victims' names and short descriptions of their accomplishments, beliefs and passions. The crowd learned that Jeremy Michael Herbstritt ran marathons and discovered the first West Nile virus-infected mosquito in Centre County, Pa., that Minal Hirala Panchal liked Indian-Western fusion music, that Maxine Shelly Turner loved swing dancing and the Legend of Zelda video game and spoke to her parents every day. It was a reminder that the day's fallen were diverse in age and interests, spanning several countries, cultures and faiths.

There was no mention in the ceremony of Seung Hui Cho, the Fairfax County student who killed the 32 and himself. As the crowd hushed for a moment of silence, the only sounds were sobs and the chirping of birds.

Among the victims' relatives who came was Peter Read of Annandale. His daughter, Mary Karen Read, was killed in her French class. He wore her smiling picture on a button pinned to his lapel and said he was struggling with the anniversary.

"You try to steel yourself for it, but it really hits you hard," he said. Read added: "Things don't get easier, and they don't move on. They get different. You find different ways to live around the big hole. We're always going to have a big hole in our family."

Omar Samaha of Centreville said the loss of his youngest sister, Reema, strains his family every time it comes together. "It always feels like there's something missing," he said. "It's hard to be together because she's not there."

Samaha, Read and other relatives of victims joined several dozen students in the afternoon who lay down on the edge of the Drillfield in an event organized by the Alexandria-based group Protest Easy Guns. More than 70 "lie-in" events were scheduled across the country, including at the state capitol in Richmond and on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. The group supports tighter background checks for gun purchases, especially at gun shows.