HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ One victim depends entirely on her family for care and is fed through a tube. Another survivor just endured surgery to repair a damaged shoulder and arm. A third suffers lasting vision problems.
The girls who lived through the Amish schoolhouse shootings a year ago still face daunting challenges, but the Nickel Mines Amish community said Wednesday the children have made miraculous progress given the severity of their wounds.
In the most detailed statement yet on how the Amish have fared since the shootings that left five girls dead and five others injured, a committee overseeing donations said the community’s strength has helped the families cope but that the approaching anniversary of the massacre has also sharpened their pain.
“To the casual observer ‘life goes on’ in Nickel Mines, with its daily and seasonal demands of work, school, births, family and church,” the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee said in a four-page statement, “but for the families each day brings with it the pain, grief and questions that remind them of their loss.”
The committee, which is handling the $4.3 million in donations that poured in from around the world, confirmed that no public memorial events are planned Oct. 2 but the school that was built to replace the scene of the shooting will be closed for the day.
The committee said that reaching out to others who have endured similar tragedies has helped. West Nickel Mines Amish School family members recently traveled to Blacksburg, Va., to meet with Virginia Tech officials and families affected by that school shooting and to deliver a “comfort quilt.”
The most severely injured survivor, 7-year-old Rosanna King, is unable to talk, is confined to a reclining wheelchair and must be fed by a tube but has shown slow, steady progress in the year since the attack.
Her family said in the statement that she “smiles a lot, big smiles” and recognizes family members, but that “the hardest part has been to see her suffer.” They said she will randomly move her arms and legs and also occasionally on demand.
“We want to thank everybody for the prayers and support, be it a card in the mail, visitors, money sent to the funds, or someone who lent a listening ear when we just needed to talk, and for giving us the privacy we needed to give our full attention to Rosanna and our family,” her parents wrote.
The Amish typically avoid publicity and the victims’ families had previously avoided discussing their personal experiences in public. But the committee said the families decided they wanted to share news of their daughters’ progress because of the public’s “generous support, emotionally and financially.”
A second girl injured in the attack, Sarah Ann Stoltzfus, 9, still suffers vision problems from a head wound, her family reported.
Four weeks after she was shot, Sarah Ann began talking again. She returned to class Dec. 27 — joining three other gunshot survivors — and caught up on her class work by the end of the school term.
“Her brain surgeon and therapists all said it’s a true miracle that she recovered as fully as she did, which we thank God for,” her family wrote. “We also know that healing is not always as complete as we would wish for everyone, but we do know that God is with us in all things.”
A third severely injured victim, Barbie Fisher, 12, recently underwent reconstructive surgery to improve her right shoulder and arm.
The West Nickel Mines Amish School was torn down in the wake of the shootings by gunman Charles C. Roberts IV, 32, who killed himself at the scene. Roberts said he was tormented by the death of an infant daughter in 1997 and by a 20-year-old memory of having molested two young female relatives that investigators have never been able to substantiate.
The school building’s replacement, New Hope Amish School, was constructed with added security features in a safer location a mile away.
“The children are reported to be enjoying their classes, but they keenly miss the girls who died,” the committee said.
About one-third of the money received by the committee has been disbursed, going for medical, rehabilitation, therapy and counseling costs; living expenses and lost income for family members; and renovations to make Rosanna’s home handicapped-accessible.
The committee also gave money to charities maintained by medical providers and volunteer agencies, to help build New Hope Amish School, and directly to Roberts’ widow, Marie.
The rest of the money will be going into a trust fund to benefit those affected by the tragedy.
“Through shared suffering and pain, in shoulder-to-shoulder labors of love, in mutual respect despite differences, the people of Nickel Mines are ‘bearing each other’s burdens’ as they seek solace and healing in their terrible loss,” the community statement concluded.
