AURORA | A few days after the July 20, 2012, theater shooting, Greg Zanis drove 15 hours and 1,000 miles from Illinois to Aurora to stake 12 crosses into the ground in memory of each person killed in the massacre.
He made that same drive on the one-year anniversary of the shooting, erecting 12 crosses again, to remind the victims’ families that no one will ever forget their loss.
“The whole country suffered here, not just Aurora,” he said.
More than 200 people gathered around Zanis’s handmade crosses at the corner of East Centrepoint Drive and South Sable Boulevard in the early morning hours of July 20, placing candles, teddy bears and flowers at the base of the crosses and writing notes to the victims.
Zanis, who has been a carpenter for 45 years, says the drive from his hometown of Aurora, Ill., to Aurora, Colo., was nothing compared to the grief that still lingers among victims and families to this day.
“I just want to offer peace,” he said.
It took Zanis and a friend about four hours to erect the crosses, write names, and paste photographs of each victim to the crosses. He wrote a message on the back of each cross. On the cross he made for Alex Sullivan, Zanis wrote “Alex, I hope you can meet me someday in heaven.”
On the cross he made for Matt McQuinn, he wrote simply, “I love you.”
Family members and friends of the 12 slain victims prayed, cried, hugged and stood silently around the makeshift memorial, which was followed by a prayer circle. Many of them had no connection to the shooting victims, including Aurora resident Robert Davis. Davis, who is a nurse at the Colorado State Veterans Home, came to the memorial ceremony to show support for the victims and their families.
“I didn’t know any of them personally, but they’re all our sisters and brothers,” he said.
Davis says he’s seen the community rally together and support each other in the year since the shooting.
“There’s more healing and peace,” he said. “It’s a better feeling now.”
Mental health professionals stood nearby at the memorial ceremony, ready to comfort anyone in need.
Kirsten Anderson, disaster coordinator for Aurora Mental Health Center, said emotions of anger and sorrow often surface on the one-year anniversary of mass tragedies like this one.
“For a lot of these guys, it’s going to be a long night trying to wrestle with their grief, loss and sadness,” she said.
For more photographs of the makeshift memorial, click here.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
I saw no mention at all as to whether the crosses were placed on public or private property. I was led to this article by a link at a far far left wing website. I got a kick out of the comments there. They all loved this, while normally they screech like little girls whenever a cross is put up anywhere. I am not a practicing Christian, but I have no objection at all to crosses being put anywhere, be it private or public property. But I do like to point at and laugh at leftist hypocrisy whenever I see it.