LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The City of Las Vegas hosted its annual One October remembrance ceremony at the Healing Garden, a sanctuary built in the days after the shooting.
For eight years, the community healing garden has continued to bring comfort to the lives of those who have found themselves intertwined with the tragedy, and each of their experiences tells a different story of that tragic One October night.
“I actually heard the shots. I was about a mile down the road, and we didn’t know what was going on, and people were running to us,” said now-retired first responder Stephanie Preston.
Eight years later, and many survivors, loved ones, and first responders of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in 2017 have left a lasting mental scar for many, like Stephanie Preston, who jumped in to help in the midst of panic, chaos, and uncertainty.
“We had no idea. I had a very small team with me that night, and people just started running to us, and we just kicked into action and just started keeping them safe,” Preston said.
For some, like the family of Melissa Ramirez, one of the 58 lives that were taken that night, revisiting the site of where their loved ones perished has become a yearly tradition filled with remembrance, healing, and community.
“She loved, and she was always very caring, very living, very adventurous, always doing things by herself, and she was a great person. We miss that we miss her, and we wish she were still here,” said Roberto Jesus Ramirez
At the Las Vegas community healing Garden, a place where 58 trees stand tall, dedicated to each of the lives lost that One October night, continues to honor the victims while helping bring comfort to a grieving community still trying to make sense of that night eight years ago.
“We had an outpouring of love that we hadn’t really experienced as a community, and what it did is it helped us understand a little better how good we really can be as a community that helped the rest of the world see how incredibly strong and resilient and loving we could be,” said Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson.
Many say that resilience is what it truly means to continue to be Vegas strong.
“Thank you to the City of Las Vegas for them still honoring and remembering everyone and everything that happened here. They could have definitely forgotten about it, and they are definitely working to keep it going. We definitely feel at home every time we come here because we feel he support from other people, other families,” Ramirez added.
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