The shootings yesterday brought to mind a similar tragedy that happened many years ago and how these events are like a stone tossed into a lake, the ripples continuing long after.

In December 1989, a lone armed man entered a Montreal university classroom filled with engineering students, ordered the men to leave then opened fire on the remaining women, killing 6. By the time his rampage was over, 14 women were dead and over a dozen others wounded. Some of you know this story well but may not know that there were at least three other related deaths in the years following the shooting spree.

We don't often hear about the repercussions of these types of killings on those who survived or on the families of those who died but in this instance one of the survivors of the Montreal shooting, apparently racked with guilt over not having helped his classmates, committed suicide 8 months later. The fallout didn't end there however, within a year of their only child's suicide, both parent's took their lives as well.

I think of this story whenever I hear of one of these events and wonder what I would do, as the parent of an only child. Would I go on? Could I go on?

Yesterday hit home especially hard as I wondered how many of these parents lost an only child.