It’s still a little hard to wrap your head around the awful fact that a woman named Heather Heyer was killed by a Nazi on American soil in 2017, but at least one woman has found a way to process that in a healthy way. That’s Heather’s mom, Susan Bro. “They tried to kill my child to shut her up,” Bro told the crowd who gathered at Paramount Theater in Charlottesville for Heather’s memorial service. “Well, guess what? You just magnified her.”
Bro’s voice shook but never broke as she delivered an incredibly moving tribute to her daughter, a paralegal who was fatally struck by a white supremacist’s car during the clash in Charlottesville.
Heather Heyer's mom: “Say to yourself ‘What can I do to make a difference?’ and that's how you're going to make my child's death worthwhile" pic.twitter.com/1sZxmDzc9t
— ABC News (@ABC) August 16, 2017
“If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention,” Bro said, echoing the quote that Heather had posted as her cover photo on her Facebook page. “Make a point to look at it. That’s how you make her death worthwhile. I’d rather have my child, but if I can’t have her, by golly, we’re going to make it count.”
“This is not the end of Heather’s legacy,” she said.
Heather’s father, Mark Heyer, also spoke, his eyes filled with tears.
“No father should have to do this,” he said. “But I love my daughter.
“We have to stop all this. Just forgive each other,” he said. “I think that’s what the Lord would want us to do.”
