Solace in the silence: Nashville mourns at makeshift memorial for The Covenant School

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's hard to know what to say when the words don't come.

And for a lot of people in Nashville on Tuesday, it was the silence that spoke volumes as a community connected through grief. That central feeling brought others from all backgrounds, religions and ages.

"The memorial is important," Nashvillian Walt Quinn said. "I just think it’s important."

Nashville native Paul Schiel said he felt the same, knowing his words would ring hollow.

"I am hurting," Schiel said. "I’m hurting like everyone else in Nashville."

That's why he felt compelled to do something in this moment.

"People are hurt at the core, and they just want to try to do something. You know, if everybody does a little something, it makes the world a little better," he said.

For Carolyn Modisher, being at the memorial at all was quite something.

"At my age, 101, maybe it’s a little ridiculous but I had to come," she said. "She said she doesn't know many members of the Covenant Community, but now they are heavy on her heart.

And for some, their grief drove them hundreds of miles just to be close to a community that would understand. The Lee family came three hours from Atlanta to pay respect to their friend Katherine Kounce, the headmaster of The Covenant School. She was one of the six victims who died in the shooting.

"We love her, and appreciate her so much," Jim Lee said. "We just wanted to be here. I have no question whatsoever, she gave her life because she was trying to protect students, protect faculty."

It's only fitting that on a week when the words are falling short that the memorial just keeps growing taller. And the memorial is expected to grow with a nonprofit Classroom of Compassion, which plans to add more flowers and public art to the display. They've done so for every other school shooting in the country.

"Breaks my heart. It just breaks my heart that this is going on in Nashville," Schiel said.