The Surviving Victims

Notre Dame Magazine

Denise Foote was out shopping for Valentine’s Day treats for her kids when the killing began.

She wanted to make a big white-chocolate-chip cookie — her kids’ favorite — in the shape of a heart. She picked out the ingredients at the Walmart in Parkland, Florida, and nabbed some candies, too, planning to put them in little tins that her husband, Todd, had bought for the occasion. She pictured a festive evening ahead.

At that moment, a gunman walked through an unlocked gate in the chain-link fence around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.