MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Members of the Columbine community and beyond are mourning the loss of Anne Marie Hochhalter this week.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Hochhalter was one of the survivors of the infamous 1999 shooting at her high school in Littleton, Colorado. She was shot twice and paralyzed.
KELLY: On that April day in 1999, Hochhalter was sitting with friends, eating lunch outside when two armed students arrived at the school and killed 12 others and one teacher. The shooters then took their own lives.
DETROW: She described her experience in an interview with U.S. News & World Report in 2009.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ANNE MARIE HOCHHALTER: I felt a stinging in my back. When I thought that this was the end, you know, I saw a red thing move out of the corner of my vision, and it was an ambulance. They weren't really sure if I was going to make a full recovery. And, you know, barring the spinal cord injury, I did make a full recovery.
DETROW: Six months after she was injured in the shooting, Hochhalter endured another tragedy when her mother, Carla, died by suicide.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HOCHHALTER: I know that, you know, dealing with my mom's death was very much harder than what happened at Columbine just because I think that it shocked me because, you know, I was injured by a gun, and the fact that, you know, she committed suicide with one was very hard to understand.
DETROW: After her mother died, a family that had lost a child at Columbine reached out - the Townsends. Over time, the Townsends called Anne Marie an acquired daughter. In an interview with Denver's 9NEWS, Sue Townsend said Anne Marie did not consider herself a victim. She was a survivor. Townsend described her as fiercely independent, someone who wanted to use her experience to benefit other people.
KELLY: In the years after the Columbine shooting, she did just that, drawing on her own experiences to advocate for people with disabilities.
DETROW: And despite everything she had been through, Anne Marie found power in forgiveness. More than a decade after the shooting, she publicly forgave one of the shooter's mothers in an open letter she posted on Facebook. She talked about it in a 2016 interview with NBC News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HOCHHALTER: Bitterness is like taking a poison pill and expecting the other person to die. And it only harms yourself. And I - if I can help her by telling her that I forgive her, maybe that's one less person that she has to worry about, if she even does worry about me.
KELLY: Anne Marie Hochhalter was found dead at home on Sunday from what are believed to be natural causes caused by complications from her injuries.
DETROW: And if you or someone you know may be considering suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARTIN JACOBY'S "TOGETHER WE WILL LIVE FOREVER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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