ORLANDO | On May 24, 2022, 19 students and two teachers lost their lives at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
ORLANDO | On May 24, 2022, 19 students and two teachers lost their lives at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
For Catherine Galda, it instantly brought her back to 2012 and the memories of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Her 7-year-old daughter was in the classroom across the hall from the shooter. The youngster survived physically unharmed, although the horrors of the day will never be forgotten by the family.
“Shootings — Pulse, Stoneman Douglas and now Uvalde — bring it back to us in spades,” Galda said. “But like any other loss, for me and mine, it’s not that the pain completely recedes, or the impact completely recedes, but life goes on. Kids have to go to school, and you’ve got to put food on the table. So, while the pain remains, time blunts it a little bit.”
Galda is a trauma therapist and director of Catholic Charities of Central Florida’s Behavioral and Mental Health Services. She understands, firsthand, the terror experienced by the Texas families, and felt compelled to reach out and help residents of the small Texas town.