NEWTOWN Conn. -- A Newtown neighbor shares his grief with Action News over the horror he and his children have been exposed to.
"They've buried a 6-year-old baby, what words can possibly comfort them," said John Premus, a father in Newtown.
Twenty children perished at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last Friday, two of them, good friends and church school classmates with Premus' 6-year-old daughter.
"My daughter broke down at a memorial where we laid flowers down for some of the kids," said Premus. "She was saying the 'Our Father' and she couldn't finish because she felt so bad that the kids weren't with their mommies and daddies and she just turned away and started crying."
Premus says it's difficult to console a young child over something he's struggling with himself.
"We told them they're in a better place, and that they're with their school friends and with their principal and with their teacher and not hurt anymore," said Premus. "But it's so difficult to have these conversations because my wife and I are trying to rationalize what happened in our own head and try to come to grips with it all."
He says the best parents can do to recover is keep faith, hug their children closely and pray for those parents who won't be able to do that anymore.
"I can't imagine that light not shining in our life and being snuffed out by some monster," said Premus. "We're happy our kids are OK, but we also pause and we reflect that there are parents whose kids aren't and we feel for them that aren't able to hold their daughter or their kid or their son."
