Image Courtesy: 2008 Remembrance Site
April 16, 2007. At the time my husband was deployed to Iraq and had been there for 10 months already. We were stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA and I did not want to live alone, 4,000 miles across the country from my family, for 15 months. So Tim and I made the decision for me to move home to Virginia until he returned. My brother was a student at Virginia Tech living in West AJ at the time and I would visit him often. Being a 2005 graduate of Tech, I loved any chance I had to return to my alma mater. It was a safe haven. A huge college nestled in the rolling mountains of Virginia in the little town of Blacksburg. I loved it there. Blacksburg was and still is my home away from home. I remember April 16, 2007 very clearly. I had awoke that morning at my Dad’s house and my step-mother and I were having breakfast while watching the news. Reports were coming in that two students had been killed in East AJ. The other side of my brothers dorm. The same dorm I lived in my freshman year. What? This couldn’t be real. I immediately picked up the phone to dial my brother’s cell phone. The lines were busy and it took me back to September 11, 2001. I was in the Squires Student Center on campus trying to dial family after the attacks of 9/11 and only hearing busy signals. I then tried his dorm room. After what seemed like an eternity he finally answered. He was in his room and he was okay. He didn’t have class for a few more hours so he would not be going anywhere for a while. After I calmed down realizing he was okay, I continued to watch the news. Then suddenly reporters stated that more shootings were occurring in Norris Hall. I could not believe what I was hearing and seeing on the television. This was my college. I had classes in that very building. This could have been my brother, my friends, or even me if it had occurred just two short years earlier. Feelings of grief and anger do not even cover what I felt that day. How could someone do this? Why would they do this? Virginia Tech showed that through tragedy comes triumph. We are Virginia Tech. We will forever remember the 32 people – daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends – who lost their lives that day. They are forever in our hearts. Their families are forever in our prayers. We are Virginia Tech.
2009 Remembrance Site
2008 Remembrance Site
2007 Remembrance Site
The following are images were taken in September 2008:
by lisette
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