It’s still a little hard to wrap your head around the awful fact that a woman named Heather Heyer was killed by a Nazi on American soil in 2017, but at least one woman has found a way to process that in a healthy way. That’s Heather’s mom, Susan Bro. “They tried to kill my child to shut her up,” Bro told the crowd who gathered at Paramount Theater in Charlottesville for Heather’s memorial service. “Well, guess what? You just magnified her.”
Bro’s voice shook but never broke as she delivered an incredibly moving tribute to her daughter, a paralegal who was fatally struck by a white supremacist’s car during the clash in Charlottesville.
Heather Heyer's mom: “Say to yourself ‘What can I do to make a difference?’ and that's how you're going to make my child's death worthwhile" pic.twitter.com/1sZxmDzc9t
— ABC News (@ABC) August 16, 2017
“If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention,” Bro said, echoing the quote that Heather had posted as her cover photo on her Facebook page. “Make a point to look at it. That’s how you make her death worthwhile. I’d rather have my child, but if I can’t have her, by golly, we’re going to make it count.”
“This is not the end of Heather’s legacy,” she said.
[lborder]You have to find in your heart that spark of accountability. I don’t want you to turn away. I don’t care. You poke that finger at yourself and you make it happen. You take that extra step. You find a way to make a difference in the world. Let’s find that spark of conviction. That spark of action. Let’s have that uncomfortable dialogue. It’s not easy. We’re not going to sit round and say kumbaya. It’s not all about forgiveness. We are going to have our differences. But let’s channel that difference not into hate, not into violence, but into righteous action. [/lborder]Heather’s father, Mark Heyer, also spoke, his eyes filled with tears.
“No father should have to do this,” he said. “But I love my daughter.
“We have to stop all this. Just forgive each other,” he said. “I think that’s what the Lord would want us to do.”
