Father who lost son in Sandy Hook shooting speaks out on Texas massacre
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- When we think about the agony and the enormous loss in Texas, there are parents who understand this extreme pain.
A father who lost his son in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting almost 10 years ago is sharing his own experience and offering words of sorrow, solace and advice.
Mark Barden's son Daniel was seven years old when he was killed at his Connecticut school.
He remembers getting comfort from an unlikely source -- his older children.
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"I remember Jackie and I laying on the floor in the kitchen, just in a pile just sobbing and weeping and just not really wanting to go on," said Barden. "I mean, we both said to each other, 'We just want to die.' And James and Natalie came from somewhere in the house, and they piled on to us and wrapped their arms around us and cried with us and said, 'It's gonna be okay."
He urges the parents in Texas to immerse themselves in the love around them.
Barden knows that the world is also grieving and says there's no wrong way to process this.
"What I would ask folks is to take that anguish and that outrage that you feel now and hold on to it. Let it last. Let it activate you beyond the news cycle. And roll up your sleeves and do something," said Barden.
Barden is a founding member of the Sandy Hook Promise advocacy group. They're now offering direct support to the many who have just lost their loved ones in Uvalde.
