In the days after the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, makeshift memorials sprang up around campus. Flowers and balloons were laid at the flagpole and the sign at the school entrance.
A solitary bouquet appeared in the center of the Apalachee Wildcats football field.
Each item left expressed the love and grief of a community in mourning, but none, perhaps, spoke louder than a spray of carnations and lilies sent from Texas.
The spray stood beside the LED sign welcoming the community to Apalachee High School. The pink ribbon on the arrangement spoke another name from the headlines after a similar tale of tragedy and trauma in May 2022 — Uvalde.
Attached to the bouquet was a card that simply read, “We know what you are going thru! We totally get it! Love, Uvalde, Texas.”
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. In this case, the card says it all.