A emotional Jillian Soto speaks about her older sister Victoria, who was a hero teacher shot and killed protecting her students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
The darkest day of Jillian Soto’s life began in the whiteness of a Vermont ski slope.
When her cell phone rang at 10 a.m., something in her gut told Jillian to answer. She recognized her mom’s voice as the words spilled out in numbing succession.
School. Shooting. Lockdown. And Vicki — Jillian’s big sister, a first-grade teacher in Newtown, Conn.
“Your heart stops,” Jillian recalled of the chilling Dec. 14 conversation. “You never think you’re going to hear something like this.”
Victoria Soto, 27, made the ultimate sacrifice inside her classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School last month after madman Adam Lanza burst inside with an assault rifle.
Jillian Soto, 24, in her first extensive interview, told the Daily News about the morning her sister was mercilessly murdered along with 25 other helpless victims inside the suburban school.
It was a second phone call from mom Donna Soto, about 45 minutes later, that sent Jillian on an agonizing seven-hour ride back to her family’s home in Stratford, Conn.
Her mother said that school had been completely evacuated and “Vicki had not come out.”
“I said, ‘Does that mean Vicki is dead?’ ” Jillian said. “She said no.
Studio of (l) Victoria Soto and her younger sister Jillian Soto .Victoria, who was a hero teacher shot and killed protecting her students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
“I just sat there, very confused and lost. My friends pretty much threw everything into the car and we drove toward home.”
“I . . . knew right then and there that my sister was dead, and it was the worst feeling in the world,” said Jillian.
Jillian Soto with bracelets she wears and a photo she carries in honor of her sister Victoria.
It’s a horrible feeling when you walk through the front door and your whole family is in front of you, staring, and the first thing you see is your mother crying,” Jillian said.
“It’s a feeling I’ll never forget, to know right then and there that your life will be changed forever.”
“They said, ‘We’re so sick of hearing about Victoria Soto,’” Jillian recalled. “I just ignored it. And then they said, ‘She wasn’t even a hero, she didn’t even save everyone in her class.’”
“ ‘This is Victoria’s hometown. Have a little respect because she is my sister.’ ”
The emotional exchange is part of Jillian’s new life as a tragic celebrity in Stratford, about 25 miles south of Newtown. “If you’re ever in Stratford or Shelton, everyone always knows who you are,” Jillian said. “You just learn to deal with it.”
Fortunately, much of the attention has been positive — even heartwarming, Jillian said.
A emotional Jillian Soto speaks about her older sister Victoria, who was a hero teacher shot and killed protecting her students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
“Everyone wants to meet you,” Jillian told The News. “It makes you feel good that all of these people recognize who you are and recognize who your sister is.
The mass rampage convinced Jillian that a crackdown on guns in America is necessary.
“We don’t want to take anyone’s right to bear arms by any means, but we want to make this world safe,” Jillian said. “Having someone walk into the school with an assault rifle, with tons of magazines on him, is something that should never happen.”
Jillian was heartened by President Obama’s call for new gun-control measures.
“I want to know that when my brother goes to school that I don’t have to worry that what happened to my sister is going to happen to him,” Jillian said. “It’s nice to know that the President, someone so high up, recognizes that there’s something wrong here.”
The cruel comments, the political infighting and the searing pain of her loss won’t change the way that Jillian remembers Victoria.
“She was Superwoman to me,” the kid sister said. “She’s everything to me.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment