Texas mourners endure grief ‘ none of us can comprehend’
SANTA FE, Texas — Congregations in this deeply religious community near Houston gathered Sunday for their first services since a gunman blasted his way into a high school and killed 10 people, with one pastor lamenting the grief “that none of us can comprehend.”
Just two days after the deaths of eight students and two substitute teachers, graduating seniors also marked the end of the school year with a baccalaureate service that acknowledged the pain wracking Santa Fe, a town of 13,000, while Muslim mourners remembered the life of a slain exchange student from Pakistan.
“They will never be forgotten in this community, these young people, children just going to school,” said Brad Drake, pastor of the Dayspring Church, where a service was held that included memories of a slain student who was a congregant there. “We have families today that are grieving a grief that none of us can comprehend.”
Drake read the names of the dead, including Angelique Ramirez, who attended Dayspring and was a member of the church’s youth ministry. Angelique’s family was not at the service.
“She was a sweet young lady, had a style all of her own,” he recalled. “She almost always had a new hairstyle.”
Kelly Ward, a licensed counselor who runs a ministry in Springfield, Missouri, took the stage to urge congregants not to suppress emotions.
“How do we get through this? What do we do?” Ward asked. “The answer is to let everyone grieve, including yourselves.”
He said people can help mourning families or friends simply by listening “because dwelling in us is the spirit of God.”
Church leaders wore green Tshirts with gold lettering — the colors of Santa Fe High School. Inside an outline of the state of Texas, the letters spelled out a verse from 2 Corinthians 4: 8- 9: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”