2 years later, heartbreak of Pulse lingers
a a rainbow in the backdrop and to the words of the song “Over the Rainbow,” about 1,000 people descended on Pulse nightclub Tuesday to mark the passage of two years since 49 people were killed and 53 injured there.
The club’s owner delivered a message to those who survived the massacre and the families of those killed: “You are never alone.”
“We have not forgotten what you’ve endured and what you are still enduring,” said Barbara Poma, who since the June 12, 2016, mass shooting has founded the one PULSE Foundation and spearheaded the construction of a memorial to the victims, survivors and first responders.
“Your stories became a part of each of us,” Poma said. “Your heartbreak became our heartbreak.”
Tuesday’s ceremony featured a variety of tributes to the victims, including a video with brief mes With
sages about their lives and dreams read by family members, which moved some in attendance to tears.
They wanted to be business owners, musical performers and firefighters. Many wanted to impact the world.
Jazmin Santana, 37, wiped away tears during the montage. She was longtime friends with victims Juan Pablo Rivera Velázquez and Luis Conde. She was also a customer at their salon, Alta Peluquería D’Magazine Salón in Kissimmee.
“It just kind of hit me when I saw their names,” she said. “The last two years have been kind of hard, but we keep it going.”
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer told those assembled that Pulse’s legacy was not defined by the man who carried out the killing there, but by the community’s response in the wake of the tragedy.
“Pulse was a violent act carried out by a single individual, but the response to that act of evil and act of hate has been made up by thousands and thousands and thousands — maybe even millions — of individuals deciding to show what the opposite of evil looks like, and it looks like love,” he said.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said the tragedy of Pulse had united Orlando around a universal principle: “We really are one people, and we really have one dream, and we have one goal as human beings, and that’s to be treated equally,” she said.
“Your loved ones, our 49 angels, they did not die in vain,” Jacobs told the crowd. “They absolutely did not die in vain, but the only reason they did not die in vain was because of our love and our resiliency, and we have to carry that forward every day.”
Dyer also asked for a moment of silence for Orlando police Officer Kevin Valencia, who was injured in a standoff early Monday. Valencia is in critical condition but is expected to survive.
The service began with a performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” by the Orlando Gay Chorus, one of several musical elements of the evening event. Lance Bass, the former *NSYNC singer and board member for the onePULSE Foundation, performed poetry.
Many who attended the event wore rainbow colors or Orlando United t-shirts. Some knew the victims or had lost loved ones; others simply came to honor their memories.
The Kimball sisters — Casadie, 15; Delanie, 12; Emmalie, 11; and Fynnlie, 8 — were handing out paper hearts. They’ve handed out 30,000 since the shooting.
“Delanie wanted to give blood, but she couldn’t, so I said let’s go out and give hugs — she wanted to do more,” said Jennifer Kimball, the mother of the girls.
Nancy Ferguson, 54, was one of a flock of people who attended the ceremony dressed in angel wings.
“We’re here to show love and respect for the angels that we lost that night,” Ferguson said.
Isaac DeJesus, 17 of Davenport, wore a transgender flag as well as several Pulse buttons and an “Orlando United” shirt.
“It helped me knowing there are people who support you,” Isaac said. “I can be me.”
Another attendee, Shay DeGolier, said she hadn’t been to Pulse since the massacre — but once considered the nightclub a safe space, where she met her first girlfriend four years ago.
That safety was shattered just after 2 a.m. June 12, 2016, when a gunman opened fire on the dance floor, wounding dozens in addition to those killed. The mass shooting at the time was the deadliest in modern U.S. history, though it was later surpassed by another in Las Vegas.
Pulse never reopened after the bloodshed, but the onePULSE Foundation recently unveiled a temporary memorial at the site and is working on plans for a permanent redesign of the site.
Monica Bustamante, 47, moved to Orlando 20 years ago. She left her hometown, Caracas, Venezuela, to start a new life in Orlando, but soon found a group of Puerto Ricans who took her in as one of their own.
The group of friends frequented Pulse on Saturday nights. She left about 30 minutes before the gunman fired.
Seven of her friends died at Pulse.
“Just knowing that we used to come here to dance, and now, well, we’re here for this,” she said. “Little by little the pain goes away, but the emptiness stays here.”