LEWISTON, Maine — After the worst day in Lewiston's history, cards and letters began to pour in. They came from across the country and beyond, many of them from people who had never even been to Maine but felt the need to offer support and condolences after a mass shooting left 18 people dead and 13 wounded.
"In the midst of your grief and terrible loss," one person wrote, "I want you to know that I and all of Nova Scotia are with you in thought and prayer."
Another offered this sentiment: "In time my hope for you is that you will remember your loved one in the way that they would be most happy with—their moments of joy, or at their most endearing, or funny."
In all, about 1,000 cards and letters were sent to the city, nearly all of which have now been collected by the Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning, and Labor. The museum, housed in an old mill building on the edge of downtown, has room to display some but not all of the collection.
"We'll always have a selection of memorial items on view for people," Executive Director Rachel Ferrante said. "If people want to see specific items, we’re always happy to pull those out."
Perhaps the most surprising part of the collection is a stack of airline napkins.
They came from a Southwest airlines flight carrying Andy Garmezy and his golden retriever Cooper, who volunteer for the nonprofit National Crisis Response Canines, and were traveling to Maine right after the shooting. Cooper, whose patience knows no bounds, would give people shaken by the shooting the calming affection and understanding that only a dog can provide.
Thirty-four thousand feet in the air, Garmezy had an idea. "If you were to pass out some napkins and ask the people to write messages that I can share with the people of Maine in recovery," he told the flight attendants, "I know it would be helpful."
Nearly every passenger jotted a short but heartfelt note, and Garmezy was allowed to read some over the plane's public address system.
"It was powerful," he recalled. "I had a hard time getting through some of the messages. At the end, there was just applause from all the people in the plane."
The napkins, cards, and letters now have a lasting home at the Maine MILL. Ferrante said it's committed "to archiving them, to preserving them, and to displaying a rotating display of objects for the community, essentially in perpetuity."