COURTHOUSE — On the fourth anniversary of a terrible day, while people began to gather outside City Hall, Girl Scouts taped paper cranes connected by string to a tent.
The paper cranes represent hope and healing, the young people said. This was the work of Esabella Fernandez, Morgan Ramsey and Anna Sherman, of Girl Scout Troop 477.
“A symbol of peace,” Sherman, 13, called the cranes.
“We are spreading hope through paper cranes,” said Ramsey, 11. “We folded 1,000 paper cranes.”
One thousand each, that is. Sometimes they made crane after crane working alone. Sometimes they worked together.
Now the cranes would go to others.
“It’s remembering people,” Fernandez, 12, said of the ceremony that would follow. “It’s hard to put into words.”
This year’s ceremony included speakers, the lighting of a flame, music by Ocean Lakes High School students and the illumination of 12 lights near Building 2.
“On this day of remembrance, we are showing our support for the victims, survivors and heroes of that day,” said Virginia Beach Fire Department District Chief Lorna Trent.
“Four years ago today, this city was rocked by unspeakable tragedy,” he said. “The damage inflicted was physically, mentally and emotionally immeasurable. It’s difficult to imagine something like that happens until it does. And, when it did happen, it was even more difficult to see a path forward out of the immediate darkness and sadness. But, with our grief, there is greatness and hope.”
Police Sgt. Brian Ricardo, among those who responded to Building 2 in 2019, spoke next. He had been working at an event at the Oceanfront that day, but plans changed, and he had been near enough to respond. “I ran down that sidewalk right there,” he said, “and I went through that door that used to be right there, where a set of stairs led up.”
He described what the moments that followed were like, how hard it is to process such a thing, and of healing and purpose. “I share this because we all have a collective experience from that day,” Ricardo said. “Although our experiences come from different perspectives or perceptions, we are bound together by this experience, and, in this way, we are a community of survivors.”
City Manager Patrick Duhaney read names of the people lost:
LaQuita C. Brown, Ryan Keith Cox, Tara Welch Gallagher, Mary Lou Gayle, Alexander Mikhail Gusev, Joshua O. Hardy, Michelle “Missy” Langer, Richard H. Nettleton, Katherine A. Nixon, Christopher Kelly Rapp, Herbert “Bert” Snelling and Robert “Bobby” Williams.
People kept cranes to take with them. Some draped over a jacket, embroidered with “Building 2” and resting on a lawn chair. A woman wore cranes around her shoulders. After the ceremony, Jamie Capps, special events and resort programs manager for the city, stood near Ricardo while her colleague and friend greeted others. A Girl Scout approached.
“Can you save one for Sgt. Ricardo?” Capps asked.
Ramsey handed over paper cranes.
Capps gave them to the sergeant a moment later.
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