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Grief. White crosses with hearts bear name & photo of each victim installed on LV Strip to honor those tragically died on 1oct17
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The retired carpenter said the cross helped him cope with his father-in-law's death and that he wanted to provide that closure for the Las Vegas community after the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival Sunday.
He drove to Las Vegas Tuesday evening and on Thursday installed 58 crosses, each displaying the name and photo of a victim, at the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. By Friday, visitors had contributed flowers, collages and handwritten messages to the growing impromptu memorial. He also left about 100 markers for people to write messages on the crosses.
On Friday, people lined up to view the crosses and sign a "Vegas Strong" sign. Backed-up traffic forced visitors to park a couple of blocks away.
Heather Melton of western Tennessee visited the memorial with her three children and mother-in-law in honor of her husband, James "Sonny" Melton, 29, who was fatally shot in the back while shielding her from bullets.
"I think the (memorial) is really nice. It's comforting, but also it's just really heartbreaking," she said as she wiped away a tear.
Tina Lund and her son David of Summerlin visited as representatives for the family of Brian Fraser. His family lives in Pomona, California, and asked David Lund to leave photos at the cross.
"We made a collage of pictures," Tina Lund said. "We put them together in a frame to personalize the memorial. We added some blue ribbon and some of our heartfelt thoughts."
Brooke, 7, is a kind, energetic girl who "looks just like her mom," Robert said.
She's smart, too. She understands what happened. Brooke is the one who asked to come and visit the memorials.
"I couldn't not bring her," Robert said, standing by the white cross that now bears his wife's name near the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. "I think this is something she's going to remember forever."
On the cross, Brooke carefully piled on several bracelets that read "#VegasStrong" and "#LiveLikeLisaP." A member of Lisa's church had created the bracelets. The church also paid for Lisa's funeral.
"Daddy, can I take the cards?" Brooke asked.
"Of course you can, babe," her father said.
She stared at one note for several seconds: "Sleep pretty darling, do not cry and I will sing a lullaby."
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Photo courtesy Bizuayehu Tesfaye @bizutesfaye and Chase Stevens @csstevensphoto / Las Vegas Review-Journal
