269,024
total hearts received for Moments That Survive

Teresa Rowell

In honor of TVUUC

I’d like to lift up the lives of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, who were killed, and the seven other people wounded on July 27, 2008, by the gunman who entered Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church during the youth’s production of Annie Jr.

I’d like to lift up the countless families affected by this shooting, who had their lives forever changed, who were left feeling that church was not a safe place anymore.

TVUUC is the church my husband grew up attending, and we both know many, many people from there. It is a congregation we have deep ties to, where we worship when we are visiting family in Tennessee. I can never forget what happened there; just driving by the building, whenever I’m in Knoxville, makes my heart clench. It spills over to my own church in North Carolina, making me wonder if I and those I worship with are safe here?

Reacting shows support for gun violence survivors.

269,024