Alyssa Alhadeff was an honors student, a soccer player who also made time to volunteer at a homeless shelter, and a bright light whose infectious laugh spread cheer wherever she went.
Her laugh was forever silenced on that tragic day at Stoneman Douglas, but her mother, Lori Alhadeff, who is attending today’s March for Our Lives in D.C., is determined to carry her daughter’s voice into the fight for gun safety and sanity.
Lori penned this article in today’s Washington Post
My daughter died at Parkland. It’s now my job to be her voice.
“Her name was Alyssa . My beautiful daughter was only 14 when she was shot and killed in her classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School...
...Here’s something else about my Alyssa: She was a fighter. Now, it is my job to fight in her name — to end gun violence, to elect people who will stand up to the National Rifle Association and to make our communities safer...
I know what my job is now. My job is to be Alyssa’s voice, because hers has been silenced. My job is to fight to make sure that other kids all across the country don’t have to go to school and feel unsafe. To honor Alyssa’s memory, I have created the organization Make Schools Safe with a mission of preventing school shootings. I will speak out for stronger gun laws…
...What gives me hope, beyond my grief and outrage? The very students who are asked to go to school and risk being shot and killed. This generation gives me hope. They are doing what Alyssa would be doing had she survived. The surviving Stoneman Douglas students, and students across the country, are courageous and powerful advocates.
I stand with these students, in Alyssa’s honor, and I will cheer them on as they fight for much-needed change.”
Lori Alhadeff obviously did a wonderful job raising her daughter and I do not doubt she will continue to do a wonderful job carrying Alyssa’s voice into the future, a future darkened perceptibly by her daughter’s passing but one that might be made safer for all of us by her sacrifice.