Texas Shooting Survivor Tells Public to 'Turn on the Light' When in Darkness, Knows She'll See Family Again
Cassidy Stay is the sole survivor of a horrific shooting in Texas that left her parents and siblings dead. Her uncle took his anger and jealously out on the family and brutally executed them, but Cassidy remains strong and says she will look to the light and knows she will see her family again one day.
"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times," Cassidy said, "if one remembers to turn on the light."
Cassidy's words come from the popular "Harry Potter" series of books and were attributed to the wise headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. She spoke after being released from the hospital on Friday, two days after her family was murdered by her aunt's ex-husband, Ronald Lee Haskell. Cassidy suffered a fractured skull and only survived by playing dead. She perhaps saved her grandparents' lives by calling police and warning them that Haskell intended to go there next after he left her home.
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While in the hospital, Cassidy talked with her grandfather, Roger Lyon, about angels sent to "protect his children in times of great need. After she had been shot on Wednesday, she said it felt as though the angels were there with her, putting their hands over her mouth – whispering to her to be quiet," Lyon said. "'I was quiet when I needed to be quiet,' she told us."
"We have wondered whether those angels might have been her brothers and sisters," Lyon told KPRC-TV.
Haskell killed Stephen and Katie Stay and their children: Brian, Emily, Becca, and Zach. He was arrested by police and will soon face trial for his crime. In the meantime, the survivors are gathering together and relying on their faith to get them through a difficult time.
"We have to forgive," Katie's mother, Joyce Stay told CNN, "and that's a process, and we can do that even though six of our children have been taken from us."
"I know that my mom, dad, Brian, Emily, Becca, and Zach are in a much better place," Cassidy said at the public gathering, "and that I will be able to see them again one day."
