IN MEMORY OF ANA MARQUEZ-GREENE

      Ms. Marquez-Greene recalled that one day when she was a bit anxious, Ana turned to her and said, 'Don't let them suck your fun circuits dry, Mom.'
      "This grief process is personal, it's long and it's complex, and it's different for every one of us," she said.
      She added, "But we're not going to let this suck our fun circuits dry."

--- Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of Ana, 6, one of the 20 students and six adults killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, school-shooting tragedy by a suicidally-depressed young man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and armed with a rapid-fire, military-style semiautomatic assault rifle.

(The actual quotation from Ana, cited above by Ms. Marquez-Greene, appeared in The New York Times on Monday, January 2l, 2013, cont. from page A1.)

(Picture credit: Seth Wenig / Associated Press, with special thanks.)

[ Requiescat in pace, dearest Ana. ]

In the steadfast memory of the twenty school children and the six school staff members who were taken that day, December 14th, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut:

Charlotte Bacon
Daniel Barden
Rachel Davino
Olivia Engel
Josephine Gay
Ana M. Marquez-Greene
Dylan Hockley
Dawn Hochsprung
Madeleine F. Hsu
Catherine V. Hubbard
Chase Kowalski
Jesse Lewis
James Mattioli
Grace McDonnell
Anne Marie Murphy
Emilie Parker
Jack Pinto
Noah Pozner
Caroline Previdi
Jessica Rekos
Avielle Richman
Lauren Rousseau
Mary Sherlach
Victoria Soto
Benjamin Wheeler
Allison N. Wyatt

Sandy Hook

by Nicolas Freeman
nwf2@princeton.edu

The twenty children who died that day
Were each the silvery star in their mother’s eye,
Were each the earnest laugh in their father’s smile,
Were each the painful parting of ev’ry good-bye.

The twenty children who died that day
Had been tucked into bed the night before,
Had been kissed so tenderly by their parents
Who expected to see them many nights more.

The twenty children who died that day
Dreamt a world unknown by human vice,
Dreamt a future without doubts or bounds,
Dreamt a life where only peace enticed.

And twenty voices shall not shout with joy—
And twenty embraces shall not be given—
And twenty gifts shall remain unopened—
On Christmas Day, families mourn for their taken children.

The six who tried to save them,
From whom were taken a sacrifice ultimate,
Were the unspoken keepers of courage and bravery—
Were the adamant defenders of innocence and purity.

For the twenty-six who died that day
Have died in merciless malice,
Have died without cause or reason just,
Have died in human wickedness.

~

Therefore, may our memory always keep
Their thought and souls immortal:
The twenty who were taken
And the six who tried to save them.

They who walk, hand in hand,
Shall see no longer this earth
But instead shall see, in golden light,
Their Shepherd’s face and Heaven’s warmth.