Charleston community is changed, but it’s not broken

Thursday, I woke up to find my world changed.

After spending the previous night watching the sunset at Folly Beach, which is about 10 miles from downtown Charleston, I drove home and went straight to bed, completely unaware of the shootings that had occurred.

I woke up Thursday morning to an array of text messages from family and friends back home. Each one of them asking if I was okay.

Since I was still unaware of the Charleston shootings, I was both confused and alarmed.

I quickly discovered what had happened in the city of Charleston, but couldn’t believe it. Anyone who knows Charleston knows it as a quaint city. A city with a small-town feel. A safe city.

In efforts to keep Charleston this way, there is even a height restriction in place, which doesn’t allow for buildings to be built taller than the steeple.

Many speculate that this is the city’s way of suggesting that faith should always remain most prominent and important in the lives of its citizens.

Sadly enough, nine individuals who proved to put their faith first were killed in the very city that values doing so when 21-year-old Dylann Roof allegedly entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during a weekly Bible study meeting and opened fire.

In efforts to show appreciation for the lives of the victims, the people of Charleston are partaking in all sorts of memorial services.

One in which many participated in was the vigil for Sharonda Coleman-Singleton. Yahoo News explains that “the 45-year-old mother of three coached the girls’ track team at Goose Creek High School in Goose Creek, S.C.” Yahoo News further explains that “Members of the ‘Gator Nation,’ fans of the school’s sports teams, were invited to attend a vigil for Coleman-Singleton.”

Additionally, Scott Eisberg tweeted that a “Landscaper drew SS for Sharonda Singleton in field at Goose Creek HS.”

Though things will never be the same for Singleton’s children, it is comforting to see that they still have a family to provide them with love and support: the sports community.

And while things will remain forever changed for the family members of the other victims, it is comforting to know that they too have a family to provide them with love and support: the Charleston community.

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*Featured Photo (above) credit to David Goldman/AP

Randy Gregory making immediate progress
Randy Gregory making immediate progress