“I guess if there is anything to be gained from the senseless deaths of my beautiful family, it’s for us all to go forward with the inclination to live with a faith that embodies action, help a neighbor, fight for a cause, love your family.” Live well, he told them. And, he said, “spread the work of these three wonderful women.”
— Dr. William Petit, speaking at the funeral service for his wife and two daughters. At least two were raped and all three were murdered in Cheshire CT in a home invasion robbery. He was brutally beaten, and the house burned down.
At memorial services, people don’t clap. But when Petit finished, applause burst out. The people showered him with applause, loud and long, hundreds of people promising that in that moment, he wasn’t alone.