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Hundreds of people from across the region continue to pay their respects in Newtown today, where a makeshift memorial has sprung up just down the street from Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Mourners leave bouquets of roses and posters with words of prayer and the names of 27 victims. Children have tucked toys and stuffed animals among the cluster of decorated wreaths and little Christmas trees. And people who’ve never met embrace each other.
“I think I had to come just to find some peace, and I just felt like I had to pay my respects, to those 20 little kids," said Holly Fracassi, carrying her 8-month-old little boy, Nico. Fracassi moved to nearby Ridgefield from the Bronx.
“There’s a great sense of community, and it’s a great place to raise kids," she said as Nico gurgled.
“Right?" she asked him. "Yes. You don’t know that yet.”
Like so many people here today, Fracassi doesn’t know anyone who was directly affected by the shooting rampage last Friday. John Leonard does. While he bounced his 4-year-old daughter on his knee, Leonard remembered Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung. He says his older daughter was a student at a school in Danbury where Hochsprung previous worked.
“She always went the extra step, you know, took an extra step always to help another child. And, kind of selflessly. That’s how I try to live my life, selfless.”
Some of those who paid their respects today said they were concerned for their children, even that they were considering home-schooling. But issues like gun control or mental health treatment weren’t the focus of conversation. For Andrea DiMichele of New Milford, it was just about grieving and healing.
“I brought some roses and a little teddy bear with a candle," she said.
And as the hours in this street corner of Sandy Hook village go by, the sidewalk is bursting with these little mementos.