From Boulder…With Love

It is very hard to start writing to you tonight. I am sure by now almost all of you have heard about the shooting here in Boulder, and the 10 people who died. All I can do is speak from the heart and share what we know, and how we feel. So many of you have called, emailed and texted to see if we are ok, and to send your sympathies. Thank you. It means a lot to us.

Everyone here at eQuilter is safe. As far as I know all of our staff families are safe. Our bodies are safe, but for some of us, our hearts and souls are torn in half. We live in a time when every week there seems to be another event like this, and we wonder if it will happen in our community. Some of us sigh, say “not another one”, and turn off the TV or radio. Some of us become gun control activists before the violence comes to our home town. Some of us watch the news, and decide to speak up and take action.

This event has impacted our family very deeply. Our oldest son lives down the road from the King Soopers. He used to go to elementary school and middle school just up the road from there. We have many dear old friends who live in that neighborhood, and who shop at that store. Sophie (our daughter adopted from China) was still upset about the racist attack on Asians in Atlanta, when this happened, touching our local community.

As we checked in with our friends to make sure they were ok, we found out that some of them had been at that store earlier in the day. Some of our friends lost a neighbor. Many of them have friends or family who were caught up in the trauma. My kids’ former music teachers live across the street and saw the whole thing unfold, and we followed them on Facebook to try to understand what was happening…and fearing for their safety. Another friend’s son worked there, and is now curled up in a ball in the dark in his room, terrified.

As we scan the list of names of those we lost, there were a few names and faces I recognized….people I’ve met over the years, since I’ve lived in this community since 1990. My kids grew up here, went to school here, played soccer and took music lessons here. We know that in the coming days more of our friends will share that they lost someone close.

This is one town, one event out of many, that has happened too many times….and if we can’t stop the madness it will happen again. I sincerely hope it does not happen to your community. For some of you, I know it already has. I have a friend in the industry who lived down the street from the Sandy Hook shooter. I have known many families broken apart by gun violence. This is a humanitarian issue that has a common sense solution, but we have allowed it to be politicized and we have become polarized. We need to come together in the middle place to craft a solution and stop the madness. I invite you to join me in speaking out, supporting groups working for common sense solutions.

Many years ago I had the experience of a man walking into my store, randomly threatening to kill me with a knife, in my retail shop in New York. I managed to keep him talking until the police came…20 minutes later. The longest 20 minutes of my life. He walked away…they let him walk away because he hadn’t hurt me…and he stabbed someone else a block away. That was in 1989 and the trauma can still flash back on days like this.

But because of this my heart goes out in a very personal way to those who have experienced this trauma. We have been crying for 24 hours here, and it is not over yet. Please send your prayers for comfort and peace to those who lost loved ones here, and those who have suffered this senseless violence in the countless other gun attacks in the USA. We are better than this.

…with love for our fellow humans,
Luana and Paul

* The quilt above is “Chautauqua – Sanctuary” which was made for the Sacred Threads exhibit. It depicts our iconic Boulder Flatirons, and it is where Paul and I got married.