This Is The Face Of Grief

"This is a club nobody wants to be a member of," says a mother whose son is was among those still missing from the Orlando massacre.
From: NewNowNext

 We can’t even imagine it: One moment your son is heading out for a night out with friends, and the next you don’t know if they’re alive or dead.

That was the situation Christine Leinonen found herself in Sunday morning at 3am, when she woke up and saw on Facebook the club her son Christopher was at the site of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.

In a heart wrenching interview with ABC News, Leinonen talks about the last time she heard from Christopher, what news she had and being in a club “that nobody wants to be a member of.”

“They said there’s a lot of dead bodies in the club and that it’s a crime scene… so it could be hours and hours before we find out,” she tells George Stephanopoulos. The hospital said there are some bodies at the hospital that came in and they died and they’re not identifiable yet either,”

She said she was very proud of her son, who had been an advocate for the LGBT community—forming a Gay Straight Alliance at his high school and winning a humanitarian award. She also called for a ban on assault rifles and an end to the epidemic of violence plaguing America.

“Please let’s all just get along,” She begs, gasping for breath. “We’re on this earth for such a short time let’s try to get rid of the hatred and the violence please!”

Since the ABC News report, Leinonen revealed she’s been told by authorities that Christopher is “likely” dead.

Update: Christopher body was identified and Christine was notified of his death around 11 am Monday morning, approximately 30 hours after the shooting began. Christopher's body was one the many in the club after the assault was over.