At 1:24 p.m. Friday, Terra Pinkard received a text from her husband, Josh.
“I love you,” the text said. “I’ve been shot at work.”
Terra called Josh’s phone. There was no answer. She tried FaceTime. Nothing. Then she called the Aurora, Ill., plant where her husband was the manager. The woman who answered the phone told her she was barricaded in her office and police were everywhere.
Terra said in a Sunday morning Facebook post that her heart dropped at that point. She grabbed her children and drove to the Henry Pratt Co. plant, where police couldn’t yet tell her anything. She went to the two closest hospitals and could find out nothing.
She waited for hours. She said her pastor, chaplains, neighbors and Josh’s co-workers sat with her and held her hand. She eventually got the news she had feared. Josh was one of five people killed in the shooting.
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
‘This path leads to somewhere I think I can finally say, I’m home’
When love finally dies, it’s like a fever breaks and the pain is gone
