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Most families filed intents to sue simply because the sheriff's office had not yet finished its report by the time Colorado's 180-day deadline to file such intents came, and the families wanted to keep their options open in case the report fails to answer the questions that have haunted them since April. Why didn't the police or the school pick up on the killers' warning signs? Why, once the carnage began, didn't the police move in faster? "We'd love to know exactly what happened," says Darcey Ruegsegger, whose daughter Kacey is recovering from a shotgun wound in the back. "Not to blame, but just to know. If there were mistakes made, then by learning perhaps we can prevent something like this from happening again."
On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, many of the victims' families gathered at St. Luke's Church for their monthly potluck dinner. Few of these families had even met before April 20, but the tragedy has brought them together. "They're my family now," says Don Fleming. "They have become our closest friends." They sit around, tell stories and support one another. After Carla Hochhalter killed herself, Ted Hochhalter was left to care for Anne Marie by himself. The parents of Corey DePooter, who was killed at Columbine, gave the Hochhalters a freezer they had received as a gift, and they--along with other families of the dead--stocked it with food.
With the pain of the six-month anniversary behind them, the families were finding joy in taking baby steps: Kacey Ruegsegger, who was a world-class quarter-horse rider before the blast shattered her right arm and shoulder, is back in the saddle again, competing even though after bone transplants and three operations she still might never have full use of her arm. Richard Castaldo, whose eight gunshot wounds left him a paraplegic, has spent four months in the hospital and suffered through seven operations, but now he's back at Columbine. Every day a special lift hoists Richard and his black wheelchair into the big yellow Bluebird school bus that can seat 72 passengers but is reserved just for him; Richard plans to graduate with his class in June.
Families that kept their dead children's rooms locked up since April 20 have finally begun to open the doors: Dee Fleming goes inside her daughter Kelly's room with Kelly's friends, listens to stories about her daughter and invites the girls to take home special keepsakes. The Mausers had always slept with their son Daniel's door closed, but since summer they've kept it open. Patricia Depooter takes comfort in going into her son's room, gazing at his clothes and shoes as he left them that April morning, and even taking an occasional whiff of his cologne.