After mental health professionals and therapists leave, and the headlines fade, what will happen to Newtown Conn., the site of the horrific Sandy Hook shooting? The community may never be the same, but they still have a future.
Addison Strychalsky, 2, of Newtown, Conn., pets Libby, a golden retriever therapy dog, during a visit from the dogs and their handlers to a memorial for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims in Newtown Dec. 18. As the shock of Newtown's horrific school shooting starts wear off, residents are seeking a way forward through faith, community, and a determination to seize their future.
David Goldman/AP/File
EnlargeThe grief will not end. Yet the healing must begin. So as the shock of?Newtown's?horrific school shooting starts to wear off, as the headlines fade and the therapists leave, residents are seeking a way forward through faith, community and a determination to seize their future.
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At religious services Sunday, church leaders received standing ovations from parishioners they have been helping to cope with the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman also killed his mother and himself.
"This has been the worst week of my life," said Monsignor Robert Weiss of the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, which lost eight children and two adults in the massacre. He thanked the community for giving him strength to get through the week filled with funerals.
To deal with the short-term trauma, the state sent dozens of mental health professionals to?Newtown. Sessions were available every day, at a half-dozen locations. Relief also has been provided by therapy and service dogs, massage therapists, acupuncturists and art therapists, from around Connecticut and the nation.
Rick Kaplan was driving back to South Carolina on Sunday with his nine service dogs. His "Canine Angels" usually assist disabled veterans, but he spent several days inNewtown?with parents and grandparents of the victims, the victims' classmates, and other town residents.
The families "held dogs, cried, laughed, hugged and thanked us to say that this was invaluable," Kaplan said. "The love and respect of a dog is something, no doctor and no medicine can compete with what a dog can do."
The mother of one victim sat with one dog for an hour. Kaplan recalls her saying, "I can't tell you how guilty I feel because this is the first joy I've had in a week. I feel so guilty because I'm not thinking about my son right now."
After the Sunday service at?Newtown's?Trinity Episcopal Church, the Rev. Kathleen Adams-Shepherd received hugs and kisses from a long line of parishioners. She choked up as she read the names of the victims and offered a prayer for all of them, including gunman Adam Lanza and his slain mother, Nancy.
Deacon Rick Scinto of St. Rose of Lima said church officials will be teamed with professional counselors and therapists to provide assistance.
"I don't see us taking a lead role, but I certainly see us taking a cooperative role in any kind of counseling that they need. We have our niche. We're religious and we can talk about God and how the Lord figures in this whole mess," Scinto said.
Things will never be the same here. And that transformation itself ? heartbreaking and permanent as it may be ? is the key to long-term recovery, say some of those helping to lead the healing of this shattered town.
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