After tragedies, a time to heal

Like James Taylor in song, Utahns have seen fire and rain.

In the course of seven days, three tragedies — one in Utah County, two in Salt Lake County — claimed 12 lives, injured six and left countless others emotionally deflated and grasping for answers.

"It just seems like there's a black cloud over our valley for some reason lately," said Justin Bell, a friend to the Williams family.

Bodies and spirits are aching. People are asking Jesus to look down upon them and see them through another day. Sweet dreams are in pieces on the ground.

Pamela Atkinson, a special adviser to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and a longtime advocate for needy people, said she senses the community is feeling fragile.

"I think it's making people feel a little unsafe in terms of you never know what's going to happen. Each day is a little more treacherous," she said.

Greg Roper had that feeling Friday while eating lunch at the ZCMI Center food court. He told his father he felt a "twinge of insecurity" in light of what happened at Trolley Square.

Roper is still grieving the loss of his wife April Roper, 24, who died when their Saratoga Springs home exploded Feb. 6. Questar employee Larry Radford, 48, also died.

It was the first of three incidents involving multiple fatalities that shook Utahns in a week.

On Feb. 9, Michelle Williams, 41, who was six months pregnant; son Ben, 11, and daughter Anna, 9, died when an allegedly drunken teenager smashed his Jeep Cherokee into their Volkswagen Jetta. Chris Williams, 42, and another son Sam, 6, were injured.

Then, this past Monday, Sulejman Talovic fatally gunned down Teresa Ellis, 29; Brad Frantz, 24; Kirsten Hinckley, 15; Vanessa Quinn, 29, and Jeffrey Walker, 52, in a shooting rampage at Trolley Square. He seriously wounded four others — Stacy Hanson, Shawn Munns, Carolyn Tuft and AJ Walker. Police shot and killed the 18-year-old Talovic.

"I think the good thing about it is the vast majority of people don't dwell on those events and they tend to separate them in their minds," said Kent McDonald, director of the Sandy Counseling Center. "Because of that, we survive the trauma. If that weren't true, we probably wouldn't" survive.

For some, though, the three horrific incidents are interwoven emotionally because they occurred in such a short period.

"I think, quite frankly, in my own mind I link those three events together," said President James Wood of the LDS Highland Park Stake, in which the Williams family lives. "To me, it's just sad that so much tragedy has to happen all together, not that if it happens apart, it's any less tragic."

John Malouf, a Valley Mental Health psychologist, said some people don't see these as single events.