It has been one week since 26 people were killed in a tiny Texas town that is now coming to grips with a new sense of normal, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Whether they like it or not, Sutherland Springs will forever be linked with a tragedy. The San Antonio suburb will join the ranks of Columbine, Colorado, which is known for the deadly high school shooting in 1999.
Town historian Tambira Read says there is so much more to their home than a mass killing. There are links to the American Revolution.
"Spanish military leader Bernardo de Gálvez was given money by the king to purchase horses and cattle, to bring to the American revolutionaries so they could beat the British. One of the first stopping places was Sutherland Springs," she explains.
The First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1926, will be torn down, removing another piece of the town's history. It was the home to a food pantry, a meeting place for festivals and where many of the town's residents got married.
"So many of them were there," Sing Oldham with the Southern Baptist Convention says. "How do you go back to a place like that without all the memories coming flooding over?"T
he town was formed in the mid-1800's by Dr. John Sutherland, who as drawn by the mineral waters that flow from the springs. People flocked there to get treated for rheumatism and diphtheria.
"One of the Rosie Riveters grew up in Sutherland Springs,” Read explains. "It's tragic this happened, but we want people to know us for our rich history."
Now that the TV trucks are gone and the reporters have moved on to the next story, residents are coming to grips with what is left.
This weekend, there is a feast of sharing, one block away from the site of the mass murder. Read says it was planned well before, but seems even more important now.
"In 1913, we survived a great flood. After 1998, we survived the 1,000 year flood. We are resilient."