The horrific shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas last year remains the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Stephen Paddock opened fire at concert goers at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and injuring more than 500 others in October 2017.
Yet, for one mom-to-be she had a guardian angel near by who helped her through this terrible time and their reunion months later was an emotional one.
Miriam Lujan was seven months pregnant as she enjoyed the bands playing at the famed festival. With two friends by her side the expectant mother had no idea of the panic that was about to occur.
When Paddock opened fire into the crowd Miriam found a guardian angel in the stranger who was sitting next to her. Sue Ann Cornwell immediately stepped into action and handed the pregnant Miriam her sister’s backpack to shield her baby belly while she laid on top of her to protect her.
Both women survived the tragic event but never learned each other’s names until social media helped them find each other months later. The two women met again and Sue Anne was not only able to meet the woman she protected but the baby she shielded from danger.
With four-month-old baby Xander in her arms Miriam met Sue Anne in the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, which Cornwell visits regularly to pay her respects to Denise Burditus, a 50-year-old woman who died in the back of Cornwell’s pickup truck.
It was an emotional reunion as the women hugged and baby Xander started to cry.
“Auntie Sue Ann’s got you. You can cry all you want; we are just happy you’re crying,” Cornwell told the boy, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Lujan, who found Cornwell while scrolling through survivor groups on Facebook after a three-week search added: “I’m so glad you found me. I’ve been looking.”
Watch the emotional reunion in the video below:
[arve url=”https://www.facebook.com/reviewjournal/videos/10155957178340552/” /]
Sue Anne’s sacrifice for a complete stranger is a lesson to us all. The fact that they both survived and got to meet again with a baby boy to celebrate had me in tears.
Please share this wonderful story of hope and kindness in the face of such horror.
