Colorado shooting memorial filled with signs of grief, healing

Poignant signs and posters are everywhere at the makeshift memorial to victims of the Colorado theater shooting. (Mark Boster, Los Angeles Times / August 3, 2012)

AURORA, Colo. — The spelling was a bit off, but the sentiment heartfelt: "Stay strong Colorado. Sorry for all you pepoel who got hurt and injured. Love you all."

When Aurora residents gathered in the thousands to remember the 12 people killed and dozens wounded in a movie theater massacre, 8-year-old Olivia Schultz sat on her mom's shoulders, holding aloft the sign she had fashioned in red, blue, green and purple crayon.

It was one of several signs Olivia's family made for an improvised memorial that sprang up across the street from where a gunman opened fire July 20 during a midnight screening of the new Batman movie,"The Dark Knight Rises."

The memorial, which grows daily on a dusty vacant lot inhabited mainly by prairie dogs, includes flowers and candles, flags and teddy bears, rosaries and Bibles. And everywhere, it seems, are signs.

In this age of tweets and status updates, the words are part of an outpouring of emotion that has found expression through surprisingly traditional ways — in pen, pencil, paint and chalk.

For friends Tyler Thomas and Shon Miller Jr., the notes they scribbled onto a banner at the memorial had more power than anything they said on Facebook.

"People put so much stuff on there, it disappears in minutes," said Tyler, 16.

"This stays longer," agreed Shon, 17.

Michael Gallegos Jr., who works at a security firm nearby, said he posted extensively about the shooting on Facebook. But those updates were aimed at people outside Aurora. When he wanted to comfort his neighbors, he reached for a piece of white cardboard and a thick, black marker.

He showed up at the memorial site recently, a Batman badge pinned to his shirt, and hammered two stakes into the ground to prop up his sign: "I pray for LOVE, JOY, PEACE, and HAPPINESS. R.I.P. To The Dark Knight Angel's. God bless our community-America-The World!"

"It's more personal because it's your handwriting," said Gallegos, 29. "It's not some text on a computer."

***

Signs and notes are regular fixtures when memorials take shape after tragedies. After Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was wounded and six people killed in Tucson last year, signs joined the flowers placed outside the Arizona congresswoman's office. "We never know how much time we have," one read. "Tell your family you love them."

At the Aurora memorial, words cover every available surface. They are spreading on banners, poster boards, balloons, the sidewalk, a small rock. They snake around 12 wooden crosses inscribed with the names of those who died.

There are expressions of regret: "This beast took away a piece of all of us. I wish I could have done more."

Of hope and defiance: "LOVE IS LOUDER."

Of gratitude for the first responders: "Real Heros wear badges NOT CAPES."

And over and over: "We will remember."

Kelly Mathewson, a 49-year-old in-home healthcare provider, came here to support her community. But there was one sign she simply could not stand: a real estate ad on the same lot promising "retail coming."

Every time the memorial appeared on TV, "that's what you saw," she said. Mathewson found an old bedsheet, borrowed a can of paint, wrote in big blue letters "R.I.P." and covered up the ad.

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