Memorial photo submitted to Legacy.com Guest Book

One month ago today, a gunman shot and killed 6 adults and 20 students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.  

Like everyone who heard the news that morning, we at Legacy.com were stunned. When we heard there were confirmed deaths, we quickly sprang into action. We created a Guest Book through which people could share condolences with the victims’ families.  

We knew our site visitors would want to pay tribute to each victim of this senseless act. So we monitored the news very closely for word that authorities had identified the victims.  Within an hour of the individual victims’ names being released, Legacy.com created a profile and condolence book for each individual victim and combined them in a memorial site. Over the course of the next several days, we updated the profiles and added photos of each victim.

As for everyone across the country, it was an emotionally challenging time for our team. Having to add obituary after obituary for young, smiling children is impossibly difficult. Many of our team members have young children themselves. The idea that this could have happened in any community, that it could be our sons and our daughters, was never far from our minds.

But in the midst of it all, we were regularly reminded that our work here has meaning and purpose. Through our site, we were able to provide people a way to pay tribute to the victims and to support their families.  And tens of thousands of people did so.  We were awed by the outpouring of compassion, care, and comfort from people around the world.  As one of our content screeners said, “it reminds me that there is more good than evil in this world.” 

To those who shared condolences messages for the Sandy Hook shooting victims, thank you for helping us see and appreciate the good in our world.