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Watch Heather Heyer's parents deliver powerful eulogies about forgiveness and righteous action
More than 1,000 people attended the memorial service for Heather Heyer of Charlottesville, Virginia, on Wednesday, with friends and relatives recalling her passion for justice and helping others, ABC News reports. Heyer, 32, was killed Saturday when a white nationalist demonstrator rammed a crowd of counter-protesters with his car.
"She wanted equality and in this issue of the day of her passing, she wanted to put down hate," Heyer's father, Mark Heyer, said in his eulogy. He went on to say, "And for my part, we just need to stop all this stuff and just forgive each other. I think that is what the Lord would want us to do — is just love one another."
Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, told the crowd that she could have had a small funeral to remember her daughter, "but that's not who Heather was. Anyone who knew Heather said, 'Yep, this is the way she had to go, big and large.' Had to have the world involved, because that's my child."
She added: "We don't all have to die. We don't all have to sacrifice our lives. They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what: You just magnified her."
"Let's channel ... anger not into hate, not into violence, not into fear, but let's channel that difference, that anger, into righteous action," Bro went on, adding: "Say to yourself, 'What can I do to make a difference?' That's how you're going to make my child's death worthwhile." Watch below. Jeva Lange