LAS VEGAS, Nev.—The Las Vegas Community Healing Garden is a fine and quiet place where 58 “angels” reside.
It’s where Sue Ann Cornwell finds solace among shade trees, flowers, and heartfelt shrines to the victims of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
“It’s where I go when I’ve had a hard day, or I need to find peace,” said Ms. Cornwell, a survivor of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017.
Ms. Cornwell said it was painful walking through the garden when it was first built by community members and businesses five years ago.
“Now, I feel 58 people hugging me.”
The Las Vegas resident has tended the Healing Garden for several years; the personal act of digging, planting, sowing—growing—has helped her to heal emotionally and build connections with families of the victims and others wounded by the tragedy.
Never Forgotten
The Healing Garden serves a vital purpose of uniting the community but on a smaller scale.Soon after the tragedy, the city began planning for a much larger permanent monument to honor the 58 concert victims from the United States and Canada.
In 2019, former Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak appointed the 1 October Memorial Committee, whose members have met regularly to brainstorm ideas and lay the groundwork for building a permanent monument the community can be proud of.
“Community engagement was of the utmost important to this committee,” said Tennille Pereira, director of the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center and chairwoman of the seven-member committee. “And so we have worked very hard to engage the community and take that development process information into the grading of designs.
“It told us a number of things that the community wanted in a final memorial, including the location.”
The process involved multiple surveys, focus groups, a design contest, and public meetings with all community stakeholders to rally the city around a common purpose and goal.
“We want to assure everyone that we have heard you. The most important thing I felt we could do here was to give you a voice in the process,” Ms. Pereira said.
“Not everyone is going to be happy with the results. What I want to assure you is that we listened.”
Ms. Pereira marveled at how smoothly the process moved forward and brought out the best from all walks of life; harmony out of tragedy, cooperation out of pain, sadness, anger, shock, and disbelief.
“All of the designs had an element of the tragedy of what happened. They all had a large piece about the response, the hope, the peace, and the love that came out of the community. It celebrates that peace as well. It’s been a journey.”
By all accounts, the process had the potential to fracture the community with harsh feelings and different viewpoints on how to honor the victims and survivors; how to put the most truthful and poignant “face” on the tragedy.
The tragedy impacted “everyone in the community in a major way,” Ms. Pereira said. “And everyone in this community stepped up and gave the light they had to give.”
Team Effort
To help the process, the committee held a design competition, soliciting dozens of entries narrowed down to five “world-class” architectural firms.Models of the top five entries are on display, sealed under glass at the Clark County Government building in Las Vegas.
On July 26, the committee held final deliberations on the community-ranked design concepts and selected “Forever One” by Las Vegas-based JCJ Architecture.
The committee named OLIN+Andy Scott as an alternate selection.
“The JCJ Architecture team is extremely humbled that the 1 October Committee has preferred our design proposal for the Las Vegas Memorial. As members of this community, we deeply appreciate what an important milestone this is, and to have our design concept ranked highly is especially meaningful to us,” JCJ Architecture said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“Engaging in this design process as a team, on behalf of the city we call home, has been a wonderful and, at times, an emotional experience. We look forward to continuing to do impactful work in support of Las Vegas and hope to have the opportunity to create a place that brings the community together around remembrance, reflection, and healing.”
Design Principal Derek Sola said the committee’s decision is “extremely humbling.”
“This design concept is one that became very emotional for all of us, and to have that acknowledged by the committee and the broader community is the greatest recognition we could ask for,” Mr. Sola said.
Emotional Design
The Clark County Board of Commissioners will review the committee’s recommendation on Sept. 5.“Here is what the community said it wants. Here’s what is of the utmost importance” about remembering a senseless tragedy, Ms. Pereira said.
The city is still reeling nearly six years after Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire on an estimated 22,000 people attending the country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.
The incident left 58 dead and 413 wounded, injuring more than 860.
Paddock reportedly fired off over 1,000 rounds from automatic weapons from a 32nd-floor hotel room window before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The FBI said Paddock was unhappy at the way Las Vegas casinos had treated him. The investigation showed Paddock reportedly had gambling debts and a problem with alcohol.
On that tragic night, 1 October Committee member Mynda Smith lost her sister, Neysa Tonks, 46, a mother of three whose name appears in the Healing Garden.
Smith said she was proud to represent the families and survivors of the shooting and have the “ability to honor our 58” with a permanent monument.
The monument will be a “place of comfort and healing for our community,” Ms. Smith said, wiping away tears.
Tears of Gratitude
Ms. Pereira said the project’s estimated cost is still undetermined, but will come from city and non-profit funding sources.According to The Architect’s Newspaper, the Forever One Memorial monument is a “continuous experience of remembrance and healing,” featuring walkways “weaving throughout the structure to create a patch with memorials, seating, native plantings, and partial enclosures.
“The path leads to various lighting displays including a room full of stars beneath a cone of lit panels, and an exterior pavilion of 58 glowing pillars inscribed with the names of the victims.”
During the music festival Cornwell, then 52, remembered hearing loud bangs she thought were fireworks. But when she saw a speaker “explode” on stage, “I knew it wasn’t fireworks,” but gunfire.
“I’ve never been in a war, but it was like a war zone,” she said.
Her first reaction was to lay on top of her sister and shield her from the bullets.
She then began helping victims, putting her own life and safety at risk.
“I went back in nine times, carrying out injured people. We ran out of vehicles, so I went, and I got my truck. One of the angels passed away in my truck as I tried to get her to the hospital,” Ms. Cornwell said.
Ms. Cornwell planted a tree in the woman’s honor, finding a larger purpose in the Healing Garden.
‘Cowardly Act’
She refuses to mention the killer by name and feels he was a “coward” for taking his own life rather than facing justice.“We don’t talk about him. In our world, he’s non-existent. We care about our 58 angels. This memorial represents the 58—we made that clear,” Ms. Cornwell said.
Her desire is that the monument will shine a beacon of hope and healing on a tragedy that likely could have been avoided with proper detection.
“I think we could avoid every shooting. People need to be aware and listen when people talk” about acts of violence. “They know who’s stable and who’s not. They need to pay attention and act instead of reacting afterward.”
“First and foremost, I hope it helps to heal—because many people still feel lost. Some are way up here in that area; some are not. It has to represent our 58.”
The monument will not just tell a story but the “whole story” of what happened, Ms. Cornwell said.
“I hope people can go there and see at the end. They can understand the survivors are not all stuck in this dark place. We are united as a ‘forever family.’ That’s huge in our world.”
1 October Committee member and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Kelly McMahill was a first responder on the night of the shooting and in charge of the criminal investigation with the FBI that followed.
“There have been lessons learned across the world” following the shooting, she said. “This is how far this has resonated.”
“I have never stopped telling your story,” Ms. McMahill said. “The lives lost will never cease to matter to those who responded that night.”
For Ms. Royce, the last five years have been a time to heal, move forward, and try to understand.
“When I woke up in the hospital on Oct. 2 [2017], I could never have imagined” being a victim, she said.
Daily Struggle
While not comfortable discussing her injury or the shooting scene, Ms. Royce said resuming an everyday life was a struggle.“Nothing feels normal since that day. But it gives me stability and support to navigate the new things.”
“For me, I’m just thankful to be here. I know that what happened in Las Vegas is not a unique incident anymore.”
Yes, one does get over things, she said. But some things are too painful to let go.
Ms. Royce said the events of Oct. 1 will stay with her forever, though she’s found ways to cope on her journey toward healing.
“All of our healing journeys have been different. For me personally, I’m thankful for my family, my support system. This process of being on the committee has been healing.
“It’s given me a new sense of community surrounded by people impacted by events. I think that’s helped me.”
