Brian Less said he knows his daughter forgave the man who killed her.
The father mourning the loss of Dayna Less, a 24-year-old pharmacist tragically killed when a gunman opened fire inside a Chicago hospital last month, said his family is leaning on that, and their faith, as they continue to heal.
“We are doing the best we can under the impossible circumstances that really are beyond description,” he said.
Dayna Less was among three people fatally shot by a gunman, who was also killed, inside Mercy Hospital last month. The shooting also claimed the lives of a doctor and a Chicago police officer.
In the three weeks since their life-altering loss, Brian Less said his family has found unexpected support from dozens of people around the country who have sent letters and emails to them.
“I’ve gotten hundreds of emails,” he said. “We’ve gotten thousands of letters that all start the same. ‘You don’t know me but…’”
Those messages, Brian Less said, are slowly helping him heal.
“It’s very touching and appreciated,” he said. “And I love every one of these people. They really have been touched by Dayna’s life. She cast such a wide net. She was a magnet.”
And that’s how he wants his daughter remembered – by the good she did, and not the way she died.
"Dayna was amazing. She did more in her life than I will ever do in mine and she only lived less than a third of it," he said.
The Less family is now preparing for their first Christmas without their daughter.
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“Right now there are no ornaments on that tree and no angel on the top because our angel is in heaven,” Brian Less said.
