On year ago today, 49 people were killed and 58 injured when a terrorist opened fire inside Orlando's Pulse Nightclub.
Today, the victims were memorialized and the survivors celebrated on #OrlandoUnitedDay, which the city's government designated as a day "of love and kindness."
At a remembrance ceremony outside the club, Pulse owner Barbara Poma spoke of the grief that still hangs heavy.
“What you have endured in the past year seems like something only you can understand. Except here tonight, you are surrounded by hundreds of others who are like you," Poma told the audience, her voice shaking. "I miss Pulse. I miss everything it stood for...It breaks my heart that your sanctuary was taken from you."
According to the Orlando Sentinel, survivor Ramses Tinoco stood alongside others as the names of each and every victim were read aloud at 2:02 a.m., the exact moment the attack occurred.
Even though the ceremony was only for the survivors and their loved ones, hundreds more came to pay their respects, standing outside the fence that surrounds the nightclub. An enormous mural was painted in honor of everyone at the club that early June morning. Tinoco told the Sentinel that while the grief is still very much there, this ceremony provided him with some comfort.
“It’s totally different now. It’s like all the terrifying and awful memories I had have been replaced with tonight, with this unity and all this love,” he said. “We’re all still grieving but this gave me some closure. I could smile and remember the 49.”
Christopher Hansen, who escaped the club and helped care for the wounded outside, echoed Tinoco's sentiment.
“The emotion is too much for words,” Hansen told the paper. “I’ve come back here several times but this was different. Seeing this mural with the faces of the 49, seeing all these people here to support and remember and honor their lives, it’s just so beautiful.”
If you haven't, be sure to check out the clip Ellen DeGeneres shared below from her interview with survivor Tony Marrero.