It was about 3 p.m. when I pulled up to the coffee shop, which was in the middle of a small shopping complex. I saw a crowd of young adults and teenagers standing outside in small circles with their hands in their pockets. It was well below freezing. Few words were being exchanged. Not a lot of tears. People just wanted to be together. At St. Rose of Lima a crowd had gathered. Two miles down the road another crowd had huddled in the parking lot of the Colony Diner. No one wanted to be alone.
I began working the crowd, asking the same question again and again, for hours: Do you know Adam Lanza?

When you become a parent, you (or at least I) force yourself to consider how you would respond to something horrible happening to your child or your spouse. Almost a year later and I still don't know how I would have dealt with what happened in Newtown.

I would never link to something that just recounted the horror; I think this piece raises an interesting notion—what happened to the people who responded?

Joe Stracci