Her own doctor calls her a million-to-one miracle. Rock Center's Kate Snow revisits a young musician who survived a shot to the head in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater attack in July 2012.
By Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News
AURORA, Colo. -- Petra Anderson tried to run in the parking lot away from the movie theater, but she just felt herself falling forward.
Anderson, 22, didn't realize that she’d been shot in the head, though she knew a gunman had opened fire on the theater she was in to watch the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20. She saw the first flash from the shotgun, and later heard the shots, people running and the screams.
As she fled with the help of a friend and bystanders, who picked her up and carried her to an ambulance, one thought kept her going: She needed to stay alive to help her mom, Kim, who was in the last stages of terminal breast cancer.
“I’m thinking all these things, like OK, I hope mom is asleep because she needs to sleep. This is a terrible thing that’s happened, and she’ll find out about it, but you know, she just has to be OK so that she can go … for her treatment,” Anderson told NBC News and the network’s “Rock Center” in her first interviews after the July 20 shooting at her hometown movie theater that left 12 people dead.
Anderson, an aspiring music professor, was rushed to The Medical Center of Aurora, where a neurosurgeon determined that the path the shotgun pellet took missed the brain's many blood vessels and key sections controlling vital functions, saving her life and sparing her from severe injury.
The pellet entered the left side of her nose, broke through the front of her skull and passed through her brain before lodging in the back of her head. She also had been hit twice in the arm.
Anderson was among the dozens of moviegoers hurt in the attack, some with life-long injuries and others with minor wounds. But her case was unique, one of her doctors said just after the shooting.
“I would say this is definitely a miracle,” said Dr. Michael Rauzzino, the neurosurgeon who operated on Anderson to remove the pellet from her head.
Rauzzino said that since then, Anderson has made strong inroads though she was having problems with memory, speech and language, and organizing thoughts. She can now speak in full sentences, compared with her having difficulty to produce a few words after the shooting, and can process information better.
“When someone has that kind of injury, first you’re just grateful she’s alive and you’re grateful she can move and you’re grateful she can talk,” he said in a late October interview.
Colorado shooting survivors overwhelmed by mounting medical bills
“The brain can still work at a low level and seem relatively normal,” he added, “but you can miss a lot of the higher functions, and those seemed to have been well-preserved, and she’s worked so hard to get those back.”
That work included almost four months of physical, occupational and speech therapies. At one of her final sessions in late October, she did word puzzles -- picking out a word that did not belong in a group of ideas -- and dissected the actual versus metaphorical meaning of expressions, such as the concept of a “silver lining.”
Petra Anderson, one of the 58 people injured in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., is undergoing a 'miraculous' recovery, said her sister, Chloe, and her mother, Kim. While her recovery has been remarkable, the family is struggling to pay their mounting medical bills. Kate Snow's full report on how Petra Anderson's family and other Aurora survivors are struggling with their growing medical bills airs Thursday, July 26 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.
She at times struggled to come up with a word she wanted to say, and in later conversations with a reporter, asked for a question to be repeated, paused before responding or asked for people speaking in the background to lower their voices so she could concentrate.
“It’s only been a few months, and she’s really made remarkable progress, which bodes very well for her at the end of the day that she’s going to make an excellent recovery from this and hopefully get back towards normal,” Rauzzino said.
Nonetheless, she has a lot of continued tough work ahead.
“This is an extremely hard, frustrating thing,” he later added. “She just makes it look easy because she bears it so well.”
Still able to play music
Anderson was motivated to improve quickly by her desire to join her mother in Texas for her experimental cancer treatment. Her sister, Chloe, set up a fund quickly after the shooting to raise money for Kim and Petra’s care.
“I remember, really from the moment that I knew I was hurt, really wanting to fight to get better to be OK because I knew that my mom needed people around her to support her and that she needed specifically me to be there,” Anderson said. Therapists at the hospital would say, “‘Are you ready to walk around today?’ and I just felt like, no, no, I don’t feel like doing anything. But I knew that my mom needed me to be well, and so I would get up.”
Anderson had organized her mother’s treatment after they learned in May that her cancer was back. But with treatment set to begin about a week after the shooting, she couldn’t go. Instead, she decided to do her best in therapy so she could give the “biggest show and tell” ever of the progress she had made when her mother returned.
However, that journey would never be made. Anderson said she and her brother, Robert, got a call from Kim, telling them she was going to die. The pair, plus Anderson’s boyfriend, Austin Hogan, flew to Texas, where Chloe and others were caring for Kim.
All the while, Anderson struggled to find the words to say to her mom.
“I was having a lot of trouble bringing ideas into words,” she said. “I couldn’t think of what it was … what I needed to say, and even if I did think of it, I was afraid I would forget it because I was also having a huge problem with memory.”
However, she wasn’t having problems reading music or playing instruments, which she knew her mother – who had introduced her to music – was concerned that she would lose because of the shooting.
So Anderson took her violin and decided to play a Bach partita – a solo piece – for her.
“It was the language that we spoke,” she said, her voice trembling, “kind of at the same level of love and delight.”
Anderson, who played a few times in Texas for her mother with Hogan, 24, and also a musician, later found the words to tell her mother goodbye.
“I told her that I knew that she had done so much for me and that she was going to be missed so much but that it was OK for her to go,” she said through tears.
Kim Anderson died in late August. Anderson, her siblings and Hogan have continued to make their plans for the future, which so far does not figure around the criminal trial of the alleged theater shooter, James Holmes, or any of the lawsuits that have arisen in the aftermath.
Her sole interactions with people related to the shooting have been to thank the bystanders who carried her to the ambulance and to have the police collect as evidence the pellet that had lodged in her arm. The second shot to her arm was believed to have been a “through and through,” Hogan said.
“Being angry at the guy for shooting in the theater or being angry at the doctors (that her mom’s treatment didn’t work) ... that doesn’t actually accomplish anything,” Anderson said. “Not to say that I have never felt anger, I’ve definitely felt anger. I think it would be kind of inhuman to not ever feel anger after having been through so much. But that's not where I stay, and that's where I’ve decided I’m not going to stay.”
Hogan and Anderson plan to marry in March before they begin their graduate programs in music at the University of Maryland, College Park, which they were supposed to start this fall.
Anderson said that though the shooting had been a “life-changing experience,” her goals of teaching music at the university level and composing remained the same.
“I think even more so because music was the gift that my mom gave to me before I could even talk,” she said. “So I want it even more now than I did before.”
Leave a Comment:
Evening...Once again in my home thousands of kilometres away we watched the horror of Aurora unfold before us. Why does this happen so often in the States?? It was simply not your time to go Petra...there is something in life that you are needed for....your future is not yet known but there will be something special for you in years to come. So sorry you lost your mum and you were involved in such a tragedy..but with your courage and above all humanity, you will do yourself and family especially your mum proud. Blessings to you and your family from Australia...
-"Why does this happen so often in the States??"- Actually, there are self-centered, sociopatic crazies all over the world, but the U.S. is the only place that legally coddles them, lets them get rich & famous on their atrocities, let's their lawyers come up with a stink of lies and publishes pictures of them wearing smug, smarmy smiles.
I once worked and lived for a year in Santo Domingo, the place is a lot like Havana would have been without Castro or the Mafia. There someone like these mass murderous nuts would have been run down and hacked to bits with machetes by a mob of street vendors before the cops could get to him.
God, how I miss the Dominican Republic.
Evening Jomo..yep agree there are crazies all over the world we had one here shot dead 35 people women, men and children in 1996....Never happened since and hope it never does again. But it seems there is a shooting nearly every week over there in shopping malls, in the street and schools. Someone gets fired at work so they get a gun and shoot people. Yes we have shootings here to but no where near the number as over there. And no guns have not been banned here as many people think. There are very strict laws etc so it controls it to a certain extent. Hope you have a good day over there....
shona1, Last time I was in Australia there were race riots happening it seemed every where. I always though you guys were beyond that.
Evening Raymond..Race riots everywhere???..can recall Redfern the Koori's in Sydney and Bondi Beach a few years ago and that was between the Lebanese and Australians. Involved 200 hundred or so yobbo's and ferals...where else were they??? You haven't had race riots in the US???? Rodney King springs to mind...I always thought you guys were beyond that to.
1
shona1, Its morning here on the east coast of the US. Your summer is just starting, hope its going well for you. I was there in 2005.
Morning Raymond...in is nearly 2am here Sunday morning...Yes that was the Bondi riots..actually it was more like a bunch of ferals having a stoush...some people just never grow up...Yes summer is here had 40oC days already and have a feeling we will cop the bushfires big time again. Already had a few. Other than the riot I hope you enjoyed your visit..have a good day...
shona1, Besides the Bondi riots there seems to be a silent hatred for the indigenous Australians. Stay cool, summer is just starting. Maybe you will have enough rain this year. Have a pleasant night.
Morning Raymond...Hmm not sure what circles you travelled in but the majourity of Australians have a quiet respect for the Koori's. They have their own court system, doctor facilities (no whites allowed), education systems, lessons in their own languages up north, their own settlements, their own housing departments (no whites allowed) which they run. For the Koori's above all have their own flag which flies along side the Australian flag and the Thursday Island flag at all schools and Government buildings. They are extremely proud of their flag and so they should be. Yes there are problems, alcohol, drugs, poverty no different to anywhere else in the world. I have met many white Americans that hate African Americans as well. Shocked me how they spoke and what they said. There are Koori politicians, judges, doctors, lawyers here, no different to us. My boss was a Koori. What have the American Indians got?? Not seen a flag for them, politician or anything else here on them. Yes I have been to the States and saw their reservations, not the best either. I did work with an American Indian on a large American project here 1982 was a lovely guy but was treated like dirt in the States. He was very high up in the Company and was resented by fellow managers as they said he has been given "preferential treatment". They said he never got the job on his merits but on his race. He did not want to go back to the States, but in the end had no choice. So yes there are problems anywhere in the world and we and you are no better or any worse than anyone else. Had rain all day here today which was good after the 35oC for the last 2 days. But more heat on the way. I guess you are somewhat frozen over there..well better make a move it is now 2.30am and time for bed...have a good day, been an interesting conversation...
Wow, Shona. Great post, thanks for putting our wonderful home bred American racists back in their cave, I mean, place. They seem to conveniently forget that they systematically exterminated every Native American to the point of almost non existence. Comparatively speaking, what they did is on an even larger scale than what the nazis did to the Jewish people. Had they had death camp technology back then, they would have definitely used it. Not to mention the millions of Africans men, women and children brought here in chains and cages like animals to be slaves. Or the invasion, rape and "anexation" of more than half of Mexico in a war of aggression.
But oh well, US History as taught today is all about freedom loving pilgrims evangelizing the world with democracy, freedom and human rights...
But Jay the truth is coming out and the racist are being beat. One forgets that the Indians are allowed to run casino's and make tons from them. Obama inherently seen as a black president got re-elected. The paradigm is shifting and things are changing. Things always change in the USA
God has a plan for you to prosper.....obviously. Go forth and do what's in your heart. So sorry for the loss of your mother and this tragedy that happened to you. Keep working and you will meet your goals. May God Bless....
Dearest Petra, I am so glad you are doing well! When I hear the violin I will be thinking of you and Your courage.
Our prayers are with you. Nice to see NBC headline a heartfelt story.
Something good in the misery and muck of life...
I know this was the work of our heavenly father. Its a shame that so many people have given up their faith in GOD, as in todays world they have let satan take over their ways of life and thinking. Just see how much more trouble there is in the world than there was in the past, which is being caused by the way man thinks and acts. We used to be one nation under GOD,no more. GOD's law( the Bible) is being broken more everyday, like which I don't like to say, but it is about being gay and samesex marriage, let alone the states are now letting people smoke pot which defiles the body. These are against GOD's law, but man now says its ok. It is becoming clear to why GOD said few will inheirt the kingdom of GOD(heaven). Those of you that say you believe, start acting like it before its too late. Again Thank GOD for this ladies return to life.
Please thank your god for killing the rest of them too, if he was "saving" Petra.
AS Arsenic said, if your god was responsible for saving Petra (which he wasn't, it was the hard work of doctors and medical staff) then your god was also responsible for killing all the other people. In fact your god is responsible for this shooting, since he allowed it to happen.
More problems then there was in the past? How about the Cold War, WW2, WW1, The Colonial Era, oh and let us not forget the Christian Dark Ages and the Islamic Jihads.
The further man moves away from the fable that is god (judeo-christian/abrahamic/islamic) the sooner man will prosper.
Bobby...your judgement of everyone is definitely NOT Christian like. You blame the gays and sick people who smoke pot for pain relief for what's been happening in this country? Please show us where it's God's law to not smoke pot? God's law has NOTHING to to with your hatred of gays either. This is NOT a Christian country but you obviously have not read the Constitution or even the Bill of Rights. Unless your God has come down, perched on your kitchen counter and told you in the flesh that what you're saying is correct, save it and save us from your hate. You want to preach? Get a friggin congregation. Who do you blame for the sick pedophile priests raping children? Is that the fault of the gays or the pot smokers too or is that the fault of the evil men who do it? If you God hated gays so much then why isn't there a commandment.."Thou shalt not be gay?" You say pot defiles the body? It's a natural herb that grows in the ground. In other words it's a product of Mother Nature's kitchen and if you really believed in God then you would realize that it's a plant the grows naturally and isn't produced in a lab like Vicodin and Oxyconton is. Now those are 2 things that really do defile the body. Here's a challenge for you...get some education because you really are pathetically ignorant. Also, I agree with what Arsenic, MelJM, Batmagoo and some others said.
@Bobby - you'd been better off just giving thanks to our heavenly father, and leaving out any and all derogatory remarks, which are today socially unacceptable. But I get where you're coming from, and I also believe that as a society we've moved away too far from God. However, I do not share your opinions on "gays", smoking pot, etc. My heavenly father loves all of his children and only when we pass over will we know whether or not we will be judged; personally, I believe he sent his son to take away all our sins, so therefore he loves all of us and welcomes each of us with open arms.
Regarding this story, how bittersweet an ending to this tragedy. Having lost my own mother, I can't imagine trying to recover from such an injury without having my mother at my bedside. This young lady had to recover without her mother, could not be with her mother when her mother needed her most, and lost her mother before she ever fully recovered. God bless this young woman.
Don't blame god. Blame the guns.
Sharon1026: "If you God hated gays so much then why isn't there a commandment..'Thou shalt not be gay?'"
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." (Levitcus 18:22)
"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet." (Romans 1:26-27)
These are just two examples out of many. This is not to judge, but simply to show that there are indeed prohibitions against homosexuality in the Bible, which believers take to be God's Word. Furthermore, no one is without sin, whether it be drunkeness, cheating on your spouse, hatred, homosexual acts, or any sex outside of marriage. It is up to each person to get right with God (through Christ) in spite of their personal sins. But I don't believe God "hates" gays any more than anyone else. In fact, He loves all people, even the shooter.
How many slaves do you own Larry? Check Leviticus to make sure your not beating them, your wife, or your children with the wrong sized rod.
Bobby- Your god says you need therapy. He also says that you're secretly a gay stoner who rolls their joints from pages out of the Satanic Bible. Cynical douche.
Larry...I'm so tired of that ONE line being posted by every gay hating so-called pseudo Christian that it makes me want to barf! You're quoting something from the old testament where killing, beating and just about every other kind of torture is not only mentioned, but gives precise instructions on how to do it. Father's marrying their daughters or selling them into prostitution? 300 concubines? Giving their blessing on killing women and children? Show me ONE quote from Jesus about this....he traveled with 12 MEN and also kissed them ON THE MOUTH! What do you have to say about that?
There is actually far less violence and tumult in this world than in past times. This is likely due to the lessening role of religion in the world as religion has often been the cause of our most brutal conflicts (and continues to be). Have you ever read or studied history? Your statement is completely non-sensical based on the facts. But it is also something mainly religious fanatics believe. They seem to relish their gloom and doom world. Never wanting to climb out from under that rock and into the light. They fear evolution thus fear evolving. But stagnant life forms do not thrive. How about enlightening us as to a time in history where there was peace and prosperity for everyone on this planet? Where your supposed God was in control? Good luck with that assignment! Instead your God has apparently decided to give the vast majority of wealth and resources to only a tiny segment of the population and deprive much of humanity of basic needs. And being a part of that select group that holds the wealth has nothing to do with any religious attribute.
I have instructions that if I ever adopt organized religion I am to be knocked unconscious and lobotomized. Because at that point I will have truly lost my rational mind.
Brilliant!
What a beautiful, stong, young woman you are, Petra. May your recovery continue smoothly as you return to your life, your mom, must be so proud of you. Peace and love, to you and your family as you grieve the loss of your mom.
God amazing grace save her.His miracle.
Amazing grace? Where was the amazing grace when the gunman started pulling the trigger? What happened to the amazong grace for the 58 who were injured? Where was the amazing grace for the 12 who died? It was the amazing doctors that saved this woman; it"s a gross injustice to give the credit to some fantasy god.
I'm guessing you're an Atheist?
Job 38: I will question you ,and you shall answer Me
Where were you when the foundation of the earth?
Tell me,if you have understanding.
Who determined the measurements?
Surely you Know!.....................
or who Stretched the line upon it?
to what were its foundations fastened?..........................
Shall the one who to contends with the Almighty
correct Him?
I love you Meljm
Now quote us some "loving god" Leviticus....
Holy sh17 Mel, quit attacking people who are trying to be compassionate. Even her surgeon said she was "a miracle." Your "enlightened" opinion and anti-god agenda aren't as important as you think they are, so take your trolling someplace else and let the people who need the warm and fuzzy feeling have it in peace.
CC GWRider
No. The anti-god adgenda (as you put it) is called "reality". The more people using reality vs dogma the better world we will have.
The fact that the surgeon called it a miracle is probably the most disturbing thing. Hospitals that rely on miracles are to be avoided.
Happy to pee in the Wheaties of the believers anytime, CC. Whatsammatter? Weak faith?
it is funny that the moment that any one shows any faith they are immediately jumped on by anyone with an anti faith agenda. you want us to respect you and your way of life and what you believe without attacking you why is it that you cannot let us do the same? if it brings you joy to bring other people down and try and change their mind about what they believe you are doing it wrong. If you want someone to sit down and explain to you how we can pray to a God that can give but also take away I am sure that someone can do that for you. You may think that everyone who believes in God or who is Christian doesn't question when something like this happen doesn't wonder how it could happen and to think that would be ignorant. But also to believe that people do not have free will to go against what God has for their life is also ignorant. Why is it though you can find comfort in whatever you want after something like this and no one questions you but the moment that someone stands up and even uses the word "God"or "faith" or "prayer" and it is the end of the world and you feel you must attack them? in this country we have the freedom of religion. and therefore if you would like to have the freedom to not practice a religion that is fine but you have to also be respectful of others who are practicing their own religion in order to receive that same respect back. Your griping and saying how dare you pray to a God that isn't real only makes you look like a jerk. Rather than just seeing a comment and being a grown person and just thinking it inside you feel the need to just unleash your hatred towards someone who has done nothing to you and does not deserve it. And it is people like you who are the reason why on Christmas day I have to say Happy Holidays. Find something else to make war about right now we should just be happy about this young woman's recovery not arguing about religion.
Hello rckclimber1987 - what you say seems heartfelt, but don't be too easy on yourself. Most people who criticize the zealous religious occupation of our lives are not intolerant, and do not want to lampoon you for praying, or limit your rights...No! They merely want to remind Christians in America that religion cannot govern our choices as a culture and as a society. And right now, though Christians artfully play the role of victims, it is actually the rights of the secular that are being threatened. The fact that Christians contemplate contradictions, and meditate on the Biblical conundrums they choose to espouse, the rest of us should not be forced to care or have to deal with the consequences of these conundrums. Thousands of years of history have already been lived under the oppressive guidance of the clergy, and has led to gruesome abuses of life through anything from gold digging conquest to witch burning and torture reserved for those who explored investigative thinking. We know what religion can do when allowed to rule and dominate our human lives. Secularism is not an attempt to humiliate you, nor is it a desire to abolish your freedom to worship, nor is it even a denial of the mystery of transcendence. No. It is a position that defends the human right to be preserved from the obligation to have our lives guided by the beliefs of an old sect that has cleverly risen its status to that of a state-sponsored obligation.
The trouble with the religious, is that deep down, they will not rest until everyone is converted, and they cannot be happy so long as they are surrounded by an indifferent group who just as soon ignores they exist.
People! How is it a "miracle" when so many die a horrifying death in a crowded theater, and one random person somehow recovers? How is it a credit to God that carnage and death and stupidity causes so much pain, but it is "a miracle" that one body survives... What crazed deity permits so much violence and brutality in countries whose names you can't even bother to pronounce, but somehow saves one life in a mass shooting at a strip mall? What do you call the other dozens who perish? How do you fit God's wonderful magic in their tragedy? What kind of bizarre God are you worshiping? Are you simply not very smart; is that the key? Several years ago, a plane crashed on takeoff in Detroit and all on board were killed except for a baby who had been shielded by her mother. Everyone rushed with adoption offers calling her a "miracle baby" and praising God -- For what? For killing 200 and saving one infant? Please - use your head. Use your ability to put 2 and 2 together... It is possible to have a life full of spiritual wonder without defaulting to leaps of assumptions about idiotic miracles - what people describe as miracles makes no sense and would be nothing more than gory and disturbing ego trip on the part of a God if it were sensible. Thank God it is not.
And may "the Thumb of God" be ensconced squarely up your butt.
Batmagoo
Exactly! Well said. I'd never write your last sentence though. We've seen this nonsense many times. Someone walks away from a firy crash and credits God for saving them while the others burned to death.
Someone named Spockensiedouche just made another sort of meaningless comment that suggests he is at a loss for words and cogent analysis. He also seems to enjoy a strange anal/thumb fixation. I am glad I made my point, therefore, because a point well made is not a dud. It has occurred to me that so many people try to credit God (and occasionally blame God) for interfering with physics and coercing material reality by taking sides on and on, in love, battle, and narrow escape from random tragedy, that we can only conclude that it must be TERRIFYING for them to realize that nothing changes the physical course of life and physics. No prayer stops a bullet from smashing bone, and no arguing with reality stops a cancer growth from putting and end to things... Reality is so absolutely exact that none of us can evade pain and death. It is particularly staggering that Christians try to prove the existence of their meddling God by demonstrating that he proves his existence by breaking the very rules that he is supposed to have ordained - how silly is that?
Wit and caution can help us live longer, but not always - disease can strike - cancer mostly kills, but not always, amazing recovery is also an occasional possibility, but mostly, we all die, and are forgotten about within a few years and leave no trace - that is life! It has gone on thru many civilizations which are now a mere concept in a schoolbook, and has involved billions before us.
Get over it.
Evening Bat... I don't look at it as "Gods Miracle"....simply it was not Petra's time or anyone else who has survived a disaster. Nor do I impose my beliefs on others, each to their own. If it gives people comfort when disaster strikes, then so be it. If it doesn't, then so be it. At the end of the day does it really matter that much, what people believe in or not???
It matters what people believe-in to some extent shona1; here's why: People exist with you. You have to share the roads with them - your kids attend the same schools, they pack weapons next to you in the theater - they vote people into office who can use religious beliefs, in America, to curtail your rights to behave one way or another... You cannot get away from people and sooner or later, their collective and individual beliefs will either be a source of tolerance toward you, or pain, administered in no uncertain way. Stupidity, like high-fructose corn syrup, is comforting to the masses, but it breeds dangerous conditions in the long run, and it behooves us all to try and pass-on our best thinking to our fellow man so we can move the human race forward, because no belief is totally harmless. History shows you this. What people believe is not just their business, and if it is stupid enough, it may get you, someday. We all win when we help others see more clearly, (and seeing clearly is hard indeed, in this world of sales-pitches, superstitions, denial, and narrow-minded comfort-seeking) even if they protest our efforts all the way there.
Glad to hear she survived. Such a pretty girl too. Why would that loser shoot all those people? More over, why would anyone sell that nutbar a weapon? Seriously, gun vendors need to get their act together. And the government needs new guidelines to keep the nuts and weapon apart.
Good luck Petra.
It's a beautiful, hopeful story, but the life that the woman struggled to achieve (which was practically within her grasp) has probably been denied her. I wonder if she can still play violin.
America's gun situation is barbaric.
Per the story, she is able to play. Her main issue right now is her thought process and speech. Petra was able to play music for her mother before she had passed away in August. Not to mention that her fiance and herself are attending college after they are married in March.
I'm 66. I grew up with no cell phone or internet. If the world had cruelty in it, I was totally unaware outside my immediate neighborhood, school, nearby friends. Now we are getting hardened like cement for constant bombardment of kidnappings, killings, missing people which we can't fathom an Ending to it, but only an increase. Then I save the Miracle stories of survival or reunion for people and pets to keep my spirits back up from Rock Bottom. There needs to be more Happy Talk. The whole world around me is Bi-Polar, it seems, and the poor are the most victimized most of the time. How people can recover from devastation is something we should all imitate, and not just another Murder seems like Fun for some disturbed person. Gwenne
I agree with what you're saying but I'm in your age range (a bit younger). We had Vietnam, the cold war, air raid drills at school, horrible racial conditions, etc.
I lived in New Jersey and several of my friends' parents had Auschwitz numbers tattooed on their arms. We saw the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King. Later there were riots in the streets. Tear gas. The black panthers. Remember the guy who soaked himself with gasoline and set himself on fire because he got drafted?
The early 60's weren't a time of innocence either.
There are many good people in this world Gwenne...even in the darkest of hours someone will shine a light...it maybe small at times, but it is there. Just have to look a little harder some days. People are confronted with devastation every day, be it man made or from nature, it is the way of the world. But you see there is a light shining already, you are holding it, but just have not realized it yet. Have a good day....
I'm 66 and grew up in an isolated existence with my whole world being my immediate neighborhood, with schools and friends nearest me. Now the world, adding cell phones and internet, can't stop harpering on the Worst of life with missing, kidnapped, tortured, murdered, raped victims of all ages. Sad. We are being hardened to it as just 'another' story of many. I like to save Miracle stories, of reunions and recoveries of people and pets. I see the majority of folks have Bi-Polar in my existence around me now. How do people recover without bitterness and terror from being shot in a familiar place they always go to? Gwenne
It is hard for normal people to live in this hectic crazy world...so we all need to be more aware of all the people who are not quite right in their thinking and get them committed before they go off the deep end. Look at the guy in Tucson, Arizona who killed people and injured Gabriella Gifford. People at the community college heard his crazy rants and did nothing, his own parents should have found a way to have him committed. As the world fills up with more and more people, the odds are greater that these kind of horrible acts will continue with frequency. Petra was very lucky she survived.
God is make-believe.
Christianity is falsifiable.
The Abrahamic religions are about control, not love.
Have a nice Friday, Ya'll!
I can't wait to see folks like you stand before the Lord and cry because you never gave reverence. You spat in the face of a loving God, that has a plan for every one of us. And not one of us, is in control of, or in direct knowledge of His plan for us. Practice your diving technique, you'll need it. Peace Out.
Having posted your statements; hope that makes you feel better now.
No not really Jaunita. What would make me happy is if run-of-the mill Christians really studied the Bible, its origin, and all the changes that man has made to the unalterable "Word of God" over the millennia.
That's how this former born again came to reject the superstion that is Christianity.
Empson - surely then you are fighting to return the practise of slavery. As every good Christian that has actually studied the Bible knows - God favors slavery, and Jesus said nothing against it. So how many slaves to do YOU own "good christian"? Is your fight for slavery as strong as your fight against "immorality" God Loves Slavery.
I just hit a few highpoints as to why Christianity is the only religion in the world that has apologism. Ya know, where you change the meaning of the "word of god" by revelation and whim. Go back a couple hundred years and all disease was caused by demons and there were real witches to kill.
What happened Empson? Y'all run out of witches to burn? Or did you just need to rewrite Biblical meaning, again?
I love it. Empson is such a loving Christian he can't wait to see Arsenic go to hell
Michael - spot on.
I think most people with sensitivity can mourn along with the victims we hear/read about. I still think of the shooting of our Congresswoman who survived her head wound, but can't get my mind off the victims who didn't survive, and how their families must daily cope. That's because I have experienced death from loved ones in my family, not violently, but an Ending just the same you 'can't just get over' nor 'recover' nor 'heal' from. I'm widowed 23 years, was married to the love of my life for 15 yrs. I will never GET OVER it. One woman who lost her son to drugs asked me how to cope so I said you GO ON, you don't GET OVER. And for every 3 steps you go forward, on bad days, you go back maybe 2 steps, but always progress forward, as you have to. Gwenne
"....the family is struggling to pay their mounting medical bills." Let's pray that this beautiful young woman's life is not destroyed in the future, as so many others have been, by the greed of the very same people that helped saved it........ Our hearts are with you Petra.
She must have been THINKING about her VIOLIN and MUSIC at that exact moment of near tragedy of a HUMAN LIFE. GOD said "SAVE THIS CHILD" for she has a universal gift? "BEAUTIFUL SOUNDS".
It is truly a miracle of GOD !!
Ashley Moser lost the baby she was carrying because of the shooting. How do you reconcile that with your dogma?
We'll wait for your answer....
Arsenic-2609663 -- I don't know how Alain reconciles that with his/her dogma. I know from personal experience that it is hard to reconcile, though. For 8 months back in the 1990's I worked as a social service person in an acute care hospital which had a OB/GYN wing. Whenever there was a stillbirth or an neonate demise (baby dies soon after birth), the nurses would call me to come assist the new mother. If the new mother wanted to see the infant to say goodbye, I was the one who wrapped the dead baby in a blanket and took him/her to the mother. Eventually, I worked through my own emotions about that with a therapist (at the same time, my first husband was slowly dying from a chronic illness that was untreatable, so I definitely had some grief issues to take to that therapist!) This is how I came to reconcile what I have experienced with my belief system:
In all the universe, I only am in possession of a tiny bit of knowledge. When you get right down to it, us humans, although we have figured out a lot, and I mean A LOT, there is STILL a lot out there we don't know about. Personally, that means for me that I do NOT have all the puzzle pieces to the universe. There are things I do not know, and will probably never know, at least in this life. But I do believe that there is a loving, all powerful, all knowing Creator that started the big bang 13.7 billion years ago who has all the puzzle pieces. And the only thing that makes sense to me to reconcile these kinds of things happening with the concept of that Creator is that somehow, He makes whatever pain we experience here pale in comparison to the joy, beauty, healing and wonderfulness that we will experience once we are with Him. Somehow, He will make it up to us in ways we can't even fully imagine.
When it comes to how I put my world view/belief system to practice, I look at where Jesus said "All the law and the prophets can be summed up in these 2 things: Love God with all your heart, mind, spirit, strength and soul, and the second is like unto the first: Love your neighbor as yourself." My neighbor is everyone on the face of the earth. Even my enemy(s). Also, eventually Jesus will reconcile the whole universe unto Himself--which indicates to me that His forgiveness and healing extends way beyond what we can imagine. If there is a Divine Creator, then that is it in a nutshell.
If there is one thing I have learned in this life that can cut across religious and non religious lines it is this--I have very little control over most things in life. But I do have control over how I react. There is where my personal power lays. It has been said, 'attitude is everything'. When it comes to dealing with life on life's terms, that little saying is spot on. If your world view--no matter what it is,even atheism--somehow empowers you to have compassion for others and honesty in your life, then I have no problem with you. Along those lines, I encourage you to use this forum to give Petra the most encouraging and compassionate message that you can, just in case she is reading this vine.
What a beautifully sad story. To know someone you love is in serious grave condition is about the most helpless deeply sad feeling one can experience. To have to go through that being seriously injured yourself and facing a tough rehab......wow.
The strength of this girl is amazing. I'm sure she would say otherwise and say she is just doing what she has to do.
Here's to a speedy full recovery and a wonderful life.
And what do the POLITICIANS DO. DE-REGULATE THIS field of GUNS and KILLING of innocent folks as though it is OK because of a ASS WRITTEN OLD AMENDMENT.
Yes yes Alain,
this bloody amendment must be further amended to take out all the ambiguity and willful misinterpretation. It is after all, an amendment, nothing sacrosanct and can be amended again.
To one 'older' but younger than me, Siara, my husband was a Viet Nam Vet, not welcomed back, and I was on Peace Marches with "LBJ, how many people did you kill today?" when we met. I was a Dove, my hubby was not a Hawk re: war, but was drafted to chose the Navy over the Army to serve. All wars have horrors attached and lifelong trauma for the military and their families. My heart is in permanent ache for the 'unfeeling' 'uncompassionate' 'insensitive' folks who don't stand in the shoes of those who have to survive but often don't want to or feel guilty they did over others. Most people don't see one happy story among many sad ones as significant for "HOPE". YOu don't have to be religious to believe in Miracles if the unthinkable happens no one can explain why. I watch Science Channel to learn about our Universe, Parallel Universe, and maybe somewhere else, there is true Peace that Surpasses Understanding. Maybe there is another existence where enough is enough for killing, murdering, mental problems, any excuse to 'get away with something.' One of my favorite movies is A Perfect Murder because it's unique to read in another's doings what can happen with justifiable ending making sure there is no profit. Then there are cold movies like Natural Born Killers. Everyone does not have the same thinking but we don't care too much about things we remember briefly. I still remember the Day JFK got killed, Martin Luther King, Jr. got killed, Robert Kennedy got killed, and Malcolm X and all sorts of events that stopped my childhood cold! Gwenne
Uhh, "miracle", capitalized or otherwise, points to devine intervention. Either you don't understand "miracle" or you don't understand "religious". Take your pick.
All spirtuality is superstition. ALL.
I love violin music and have a ton of it on my iPod Classic. Marrying a violin payer and future music prof makes Hogan one lucky guy in my book. BTW, my favorite violinist is Hilary Hahn.
My favorite trio is my daughter and two of my three grand daughters : )
The girl's teacher gets them to recite one poem at each lesson and they love it. i think Petra can do that too though the article did not mention it.
Many of you have stated that the tragedy that occurred in Aurora and Petra's great recovery have nothing to do with God. You are 1/2 correct. As BobbyMac 1 states above, the evil in the world has NOTHING to do with God; it is the work of satan and the growing lack of faith in God that is causing so many tragedies to occur.
Yes, Petra's recovery was a blessing from God and a sign that she will do great things in life. It doesn't mean she will be the next Mozart, or anything so grand. It means she will go on to live a life that will positively affect those she comes into contact with.
The ones who died in Aurora and other brutal events like it were killed by evil, and even if they had God in their lives they died. This is because He determined that their injuries were such that death would be the only release from their pain. The actions of these killers are a sign of what is a person is capable of who is lead by satan. No one who knows the joy of loving their God would be capable of such an selfish, evil act.
It is time for the world to realize that a self-serving attitude will cause only pain and that ONLY by living according to God's will can you realize the true beauty in this world.
God comes to all people, all religions, and is all-knowing.
Please explain why He killed a sinless baby in the womb.
We'll wait....
And Einstein invented the atomic bomb. Did he regret this abuse ? Like hell he did and that neither god's nor satan's work.
Like the bomb invent a gun and it wants "to be" but how.
One more thing Julie. If God is all powerful, why does he allow Satan?
So he can "love" us some more with evil that he can't/won't control?
Oh, sorry, I forgot - its all part of that mysterious "God's Plan," you know, the one that was left out of the Bible - by God. Kinda funny how the Bible reveals all Truth but, wait for it,......God's Plan.
Got it. Thanks.
Shona--yes, we have to go to people who are able to shoulder our burdens without criticisms, condemnation. Saw on You-tube the other day about this homeless boy who has a Golden Voice on a talent show because Music made him not give up having no family, being beaten, in South Korea. MOST touching story!!! Those are the ones I call Miracles for being able to have a life they dreamed of. Then there is Susan Boyle people grimaced at when she got on stage until her GOLDEN VOICE did her fantastic song Les Miserables. Stand-out situations takes my spark of light left at the end of a dark tunnel re-ignite to a larger flame, giving me hope. I don't care what God you do or don't believe in. As long as you can cope with life, have hope, and inspire others, then your life has purpose!! Music seems to be major in helping people get back on their feet and then to share with others as well for easing their pain.Otherwise, you just go to bed and stay there. Then there are those like John Walsh who devoted his life for his son Adam (I named one of my sons middle name Adam after him). We must not concentrate on negative people and words, but positive ones--all of us feel sometimes the glass is half empty rather than half full. But we just have to see things that happen are not always explainable, but I don't like to blame God or Satan for every single thing, for crying out loud. We are also responsible for our OWN actions. YOu can't always control what your grown kids say or do because they have their own chemical imbalance, or hide things very well from those closest to them, or terrify their own families--authorities do not always respond to requests made to find help, I can tell you that. Gwenne