For the 17 families who lost loved ones in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, Valentine’s Day is not a day of chocolates and candy hearts. And for Linda Zhang and Kong Feng Wang—the parents of Peter Wang, one of the children murdered that day—the process of grief and healing has been complicated by language and culture barriers. Amy Qin’s story is a heartbreaking look at how isolating life has been for their Chinese American family in the years after the Parkland tragedy.
“I am Peter Wang’s mom. It is so difficult to write this letter because I don’t know how to use language to express the pain of losing my oldest son, Peter.”
A few months before, prosecutors notified the victims’ families that they had the option of reading an impact statement at the sentencing trial of Nikolas Cruz, the gunman. Ms. Zhang had initially been unsure whether she would accept. Even in Chinese, talking openly about grief felt so unnatural. And what could such a statement really accomplish?
Peter developed a sense of responsibility from a young age, Mr. Wang and Ms. Zhang said. Like many children of immigrants, he was his parents’ bridge to the English-speaking world, translating correspondence from school and interpreting at doctor’s appointments.
Peter often played the roles of caretaker and translator for his extended family, too. During a family trip to Disney World, Peter insisted on holding the toddler daughter of a family friend in his arms for 20 minutes so she could see the fireworks. When his cousin Aaron moved to Florida from China, Peter took him under his wing at school and helped him communicate with the other students.
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