CAÑON CITY, CO — "It's almost like you can't even remember life before two weeks ago," said Kara Arnold. "It feels like a different lifetime."
Kara and Adam Arnold's life changed in a moment the morning their 9-year-old niece, Hallie Scruggs, was killed in the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27.
"It was about 10 o'clock our time 11 o'clock Nashville time when one of my cousins sent me a text message and said there's been a shooting at Covenant," Kara said. "At this point it had not been on the news, there were no headlines. It had just happened and the reason she knew was because she was driving on Hillsboro Pike which is the road that the school is on and kids were fleeing. She stopped her car and helped these kids get across to a safe space."
Hallie and two of her classmates were missing.
"My nephew also goes to school there, but we knew that he was safe," said Kara. "Hallie was missing and that's what we knew."
Hours later came the horrific news. Hallie, her two classmates, and three other adults were killed.
The next day Kara and her four children Jack (16), Finn (13), Chip (9) and Lucky (5) headed to Nashville to be with her brother, a local pastor, and his family and into a world of strangers wanting to do something anything to help them cope. Hallie's soccer team made necklaces for everyone to wear.
"Feeling like the world is grieving with us that is comforting," Kara said.
Now they're back home and running their motel in Canon City, the Little Canyon Inn. They moved here from Nashville a year and a half ago to start this family business.
"We wanted to create a space for people to generate memories," Adam said.
Those memories are what they cling to now, especially their 9-year-old son Chip who was born just days apart from Hallie.
"Chip always said he was going to marry Hallie and I was like, 'Well you can't marry your cousin," Kara said. "He was very upset by that but he loved her. We called her his other half."
As they help their children through the sadness, they're focusing on the good that has come from their unspeakable grief.
"This has been terrible," said Adam. "It's a tragedy. We can't comprehend the amount of evil but the amount of good and caring and love that has come out of this it's just incredible."
Kara echoed her husband's statement.
"The good is way more abundant," she said. "That was a lesson coming into Easter that evil doesn't get the last word, good gets the word last word because there's more of it and it wins. We still believe that."
HOW TO HELP THE FAMILY:
There will be a community-wide candlelight vigil to support the family of Hallie Scruggs on Friday, April 21st from 6 to 8 p.m. in Canon City. It will take place in Macon Plaza on Macon Avenue. Everyone is welcome and they're hoping for a big show of support for this family.
The family also says the best gift they could receive from the community is to get letters of support. You can mail letters to The Arnold Family at 44058 West US 50, Canon City, CO 81212.
The Arnold family said seeing all the signs in yards in Nashville that said "I stand with Covenant" kept them going. They hope people here in our area will put them up, too. They say 100% of the profits will go to helping the shooting victims' families receive counseling. Click here for more info.
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