A Parkland father returned to the scene where his son died. He left with a bullet-torn poem and even more pain

Max Schachter lost his 14-year-old son Alex in the 2018 shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Five years after the carnage that claimed 17 lives, Mr Schachter returned to the classroom where his son was killed. Andrea Blanco reports

(Family handout/The Independent)

As he prepared to write a eulogy for his 14-year-old son Alex’s funeral, Max Schachter found strength in a crumpled-up piece of paper the teen had discarded in the trash.

“Life is like a roller coaster/ It has some ups and downs/ Sometimes you can take it slow or very fast/ It may be hard to breathe at times/ But you have to push yourself and keep going,” Alex wrote in his poem Life is Like a Rollercoaster.

The powerful words became a precious keepsake of Alex’s wisdom beyond his years after he was fatally shot during class at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018. For years, the poem was a recurrent source of solace for the Schachter family; it was read by Mr Schachter as he addressed members of government early on in the tragedy, it helped the Schachters navigate never-ending waves of grief as time passed and it was also read last year by Alex’s older brother Ryan during his victim impact statement as a jury prepared to sentence Alex’s killer.