For a few hours on this day 8 years ago, my family could not get a hold of my older sister, who studied at Virginia Tech and lived in the dorm that the first shooting took place and also took foreign language classes (where the second shooting happened.) This was the moment when I thought I had lost my sister forever. My family was lucky, but 32 others were not. Thinking about them all tonight.
--------------
April 16th, 2007
Allie Frazier
In the few seconds it took me to read the text,
the lunchroom
transformed.
The sharp sounds of hundreds of
easy-breathing teens
eating
morphed into a dull, quiet constant and
as my friends continued silently
speaking
laughing
living,
I
was far removed in my frozen fear.
I could only think of the picture hanging on my grandparents' fridge--
Two sisters laughing from the coolness of an old tin bucket,
heavenly in the heat of a summer's day.
My older sister,
arm around me,
grinning up at the camera,
happy
living
breathing
but most importantly,
safe
within the old tin walls of time.
-2009
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