There is suffering too terrible to name
You hold your child as tight as you can
And push away the unimaginable
—“It’s Quiet Uptown,” Hamilton
I woke up Friday morning to the news of a mass shooting where my youngest brother works.
Pushing down fear, I quickly called him, slowly breathing out relief when I heard his voice after a single ring.
“Hey sis,” he answered, in his signature playful tone.
But other families in my Westside Indianapolis, Indiana community received phone calls of a different type Thursday night.
After a shooter killed eight people, injured several more, and took his own life, family members across the city were quickly informed of the tragedy. Images of their ashen faces filing into meeting rooms to hear the police announcements filled the news Friday morning, as they waited to hear if their daughters, sons, brothers and sisters were amongst the dead.