Guest columnist Angela Trillaase: A tragedy like this causes suffering in countless ways

The Daily Herald Editorial Board regularly seeks opinions and reflections on issues we expect to comment on from a Sounding Board formed as a diverse group of independent suburban voices. In the aftermath of the July 4 shootings in Highland Park, we have struggled to find words to respond to unspeakable crimes with the depth and range of ideas such a tragedy demands. So we decided to hold our own voice for a day and instead turn over the editorial space directly to individuals on the Sounding Board. We asked members who felt comfortable doing so to provide in a few sentences their reactions to the mass shooting and offer their ideas about solutions. This is one essay from that project.

We will never know all the ways countless lives were affected by such a horrific event.

My family lives about 15 miles from the area where the shooting occurred. My police officer son-in-law was working at the parade. My police officer husband called me around 10:20 a.m. to tell me what was happening.

We had no word from our son-in-law for 30 very long minutes - while my daughter, his wife, was shaking, holding their 3-month-old daughter imagining the worst - and even then, all we got was a one word text from my son-in-law, "Good."

My son-in-law was part of the team that identified and arrested the shooter. Today, that same daughter returned from maternity leave and is going back to the coroner's office to perform autopsies on the dead victims and try to help their families through this inexplicable time.

I am so very grateful that my family is not on the wrong end of this. For our family, all the neighborhood BBQs, Community Days gatherings and fireworks were not to be for us this year.

It could have been so much worse. I feel so awful for the countless number of people affected by this senseless act.

Please pray for them.

• Angela Trillhaase, of Mundelein, is an executive with IBM and former Mundelein village trustee. She is active in numerous school and community-service programs.