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Saylor Rettig

In honor of Diane Hill

This story is about my Auntie Di. “Why?” Because she is a survivor of one of America’s largest mass shootings, the Las Vegas massacre. She was on a trip to Las Vegas with five of her friends, including her daughter (who flew home only hours before the shooting, to prepare for a college test the following day). My Auntie Di went to the country concert with her four friends and had a great time, until all of a sudden bullets rained down. My aunt and her friends had to lie down and pretend to be dead. When my aunt’s friends got up… she didn’t.

My aunt was shot right in the face and became unconscious. In all of the chaos, my aunt’s friends lost her on the concert grounds. All of a sudden, my aunt was picked up by a retired firefighter, who carried her to his truck and brought her to the hospital along with many more people on the bed of the truck. She had to be resuscitated on the truck, which means that she died, but that heaven was not ready for her because God knew she was still going to help this world. That morning at 5:00 a.m., my mom drove to Las Vegas to be with my aunt. Even a year and a half later, she is still suffering from her traumatic experience in Las Vegas. However, she has made a remarkable recovery from the state that she was in.

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