ORLANDO, Fla. – Hundreds of people turned out at the site of Pulse Nightclub on Monday to mark seven years since a gunman took 49 lives and physically wounded 53 others.
For the first time since the attack on the nightclub in 2016, there was not an official ceremony at the site.
Some families and survivors held their own remembrances privately.
“For me, the pain starts on Mother’s Day. It doesn’t start on the 12th,” Christine Leinonen said. “That’s the only reason I was a mother was because of my son. I’m childless. I’m a mother in my heart, but I don’t have a child to enjoy that special day with.”
Leinonen lost her son Christopher that day, and she told News 6 she prefers to spend each June 12 like an ordinary day.
“The day is so large. It’s so painfully large. Not in a good way large, but a painfully large day,” she said. “I try to chip away at the largeness and make it ordinary.”
“I often struggle with the pain, to be honest with the emotions in my day-to-day life,” Chris Hansen said.
Hansen survived the shooting, and he could be seen in video outside the nightclub helping some of those who were injured.
He has moved to Arkansas where on Sunday night he held his own remembrance ceremony by lighting luminaries in a park as the City of Little Rock illuminated a bridge in rainbow colors.
“How do you survive after surviving? It’s really challenging to do so,” he said. “You know, to be there for each other, lifting each other up and talking and chatting long hours. There have been many nights and days of meeting many people from around the world to show and shine the light. The light has been quite beautiful.”
This year, the One Pulse Foundation announced it was altering its plans for a memorial and museum.
The memorial will no longer be built on the site of the former nightclub after the organization could not come to an agreement to have the site donated by owner Barbara Poma and her co-investor.
Leinonen is fighting the idea of a museum.
She called it profiteering off the back of her son.
“I’ll do anything if it’s going to lead to justice. Basically, I’m just working for my son,” she said.
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