COVER STORY
angel wings
D
ec. 14 began like any other, filled with all the hurries and worries of the pre-Christmas
FOR NEWTOWN
rush — until the holiday music, week-
Moms reach out as part of a universal family bound by love for their children
pages were interrupted by reports
STORY AN D PHOTOS BY CATHY JET TER
“We can’t really make anything better, but maybe knowing so many people care, so many people are grieving with them, even all the way in California, maybe that can bring them some comfort.” Ali Sekany-Krebs, POSH Mommy
Page 12ÊUÊMarch 1, 2013ÊUÊPleasanton Weekly
day talk shows and Internet home of the second deadliest shooting in United States history. The details of the story were horrifying: 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7, and six adult women, were shot by one young man carrying three semiautomatic firearms within the confines of a small elementary school in a quiet New York suburb. Newtown, Conn., and Sandy Hook Elementary are thousands of miles from Pleasanton, Calif., and its nine elementary schools, but that Friday morning, we all became neighbors collectively mourning the tragic and senseless loss of lives. Ali Sekany-Krebs remembers working at her kitchen table that morning, processing Christmas orders for her jewelry company, POSH Mommy. “I don’t have the television on when I am working,” she says, “but I saw something come up on Facebook about a shooting. I didn’t pay attention at first, but more and more postings were appearing and finally I turned on the TV to find out what was happening.” Like the rest of the world, Ali was horrified by what she saw. “The number of children killed was overwhelming. The idea of those teachers and those kids, being shot down like that in classrooms,” she says, shaking her head at the memory. “I had just dropped my kids off at school. Tanner and Olivia are 8 and 6 years old; I wanted to go pick them up right then.” Resisting the impulse to gather