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One year ago this week, a heavily armed student shot and killed 32 students and staff at Virginia Tech. Since that day, some victims and their families have been working to make sure the tragedy isn't forgotten.
Lori Haas remembers the exact moment her world changed. It began with one phone call. "She said Mommy I've been shot," Haas recalled, "and the call came in, I'll never forget, at 10:38 that morning."
It was the day gunman Sueng-Hui Cho opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus killing 32 people and wounding dozens of others. Haas's daughter Emily was in French class when two bullets grazed her head.
"She said 'I was laying in a puddle of blood and I went as limp and still as I could so he would think I was dead.'"
Emily survived the attack physically, but her mother says the mental recovery is taking longer and so far, Emily has declined all requests for interviews.
"It's an unimaginable burden, I think even she couldn't anticipate the burden," Haas said.
As she and her family try to move on, Lori Haas has become a vocal advocate for gun control. "We seem to be a nation that prizes or values or allows the notion of the second amendment to take precedence over public safety," she said.
Looking back, the Haas family knows they were luckier than other Virginia Tech families that day. As the anniversary approaches, Haas can only ask the question "What if?". "What if someone had listened to Cho's cries for help. That young man was pleading over and over and over again for help."
A special ceremony will be held Wednesday at Virginia Tech to honor the victims.
Since the shootings, college campuses across Virginia have passed "Parental Notification Policies" requiring that parents be told if mentally ill students are judged to be a danger to themselves or others.
Stay with ABC 7/ NewsChannel 8 all week long for a look at the aftermath of the Virginia Tech Attacks.
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