Heather Heyer's Mother Remembers Her: 'They Tried to Kill My Child to Shut Her Up'
On Wednesday morning, family, friends, and other supporters gathered at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Virginia, to mourn Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed on Saturday after a car plowed into a group of people who had gathered to protest a white supremacist rally.
As those who knew Heyer best gathered to grieve her sudden, tragic loss, they recounted a young woman who was compassionate, outspoken, and always trying to do what she believed was right. And no one made this more clear than Heyer’s own parents.
“She was hard not to love,” said her father Mark Heyer. “Heather’s passion extended to her ideas, her thoughts…She could tell if someone wasn’t being straight—and she’d call you on it.”
“She loved people. She wanted equality,” he continued. “And in this issue on the day of her passing, she wanted to put down hate. And for my part, we just need to stop all this stuff and forgive each other.”
Heyer’s mother Susan Bro also took the stage and began describing her relationship with her daughter. The two would talk frequently—about everything: life, work, and, of course, politics—and Bro made clear that her daughter had a “big and large” personality and a true dedication to changing the world.
“They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what? You just magnified her,” Bro said to rapturous applause.
As Bro has seen how much of an impact her daughter’s death has had both in Charlottesville and throughout the U.S., she called on people to continue her legacy and “find a way to make a difference in the world.”
Bro was candid: She made clear that some people will feel apprehension about being as bold and outspoken as her daughter was and did not sugarcoat the fact that people will clash with one another while fighting for their beliefs—”We’re not going to sit around and shake hands and go ‘Kumbaya,’ she said. But she urged people to stop channeling their anger and fear into hate and violence, and instead to channel it into “righteous action.”
“I’d rather have my child, but by golly, if I’ve got to give her up, we’re going to make it count,” she said.