Jessica Domingo Going Away Party

Posted on by Thor

Jessica Domingo joined the Orange County Regional History Center in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting.She specifically joined the staff to help in cataloguing and preserving all of the memorial items collected from the Dr Phillips Center of the Performing Arts, Lake Eola and Pulse. This was a monumental task  since there were so many memorial items left and and the constant Florida rains, humidity and bugs made preserving the collection a challenge. She spent most of her time at the museum’s offsite storage facility which is in a huge warehouse.

When Hurricane Irma hit Orlando in 2017 as a category 2 storm, the warehouse roof was damaged when a rooftop access portal the size of a manhole cover was blown free and the heavy cover ripped holes in the flat roof. Unfortunate some Pulse memorial items were on the floor as they were being triaged for conservation and cataloging. Ceiling panels from the interior ceiling soaked up water leaking from the roof and fell to the floor exploding like wet bombs. Items on the floor got soaked. Pam Schwartz the museum head curator was on the scene shortly after the storm passed and assessed the damage. The staff was quickly called in to help clean up the damage. I was on site to help by making a pile of all the ceiling panels and debris  while leaving the artifacts for the museum staff to recover.

Water caused mold to build up inside the off site facilities walls and dehumidifiers were moved in and all the interior walls had to be replaced while protecting the collection with floor to ceiling plastic tarps. All of that is to say that Jessica’s job became all the more important after hurricane Irma. Conservation of memorial items did not include trying to flatten paper documents from water damage. The everyday Florida rains had already soaked and wrinkled any papers left at memorial sites. However mold could not be allowed to spread. Which reminds me I have a small pile of paintings and sketches which were also damaged by hurricane Irma. Water blew its way in through my downtown studio apartment windows soaking a small stack of art I had left near the window. I am sill debating if that work will end up in a landfill since it is damaged with black mold.

Jessica has family out west and her grandmother needed care so she decided she had to leave Orlando. A party was held at Pam Schwartz’s home. I sketched briefly between food and games. Whitney Broadaway‘s child had a game that everyone played, it involved a maze that kept moving making it a challenge for players to collect the items needed to win. I played a round after the sketch was put a side and it was a fun game.

After Hurricane Irma Jessica allowed Pam and myself to come over her place for a shower and a bit to eat.  It is when there is an emergency when true friend step up. Since moving Jessica had had a child herself. It is a shame that really good and talented friends keep getting pulled away from Orlando.

Exponential Decay

Posted on by Thor

Pam Schwartz and I went to the Rogers Kiene Building formerly The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801) for the monthly In between Series featuring Exponential Decay.  The in between Series is so named because each concert happens as one art show is coming down and the next one is being mounted. I focused my attention on sketching the nudes forming a human skull before the performers took to the stage. The Nudes won a red ribbon. The ribbon added a festive 4H County Fairs vibe to the setting.The In between Series concerts are notorious for stating about an hour after the time posed on the invite. This gives me plenty of time to sketch in the setting before the performance starts.

Exponential Decay is an experimental duo from Orlando, Florida. Their music draws inspiration from a wide breadth of genres and artists but is firmly maximalist. Consisting of Jeremy Adams (bass guitar and visual programming) and Aaron Linglebach (electric guitar), Exponential Decay debuted at the IMMERSE 2017 presented by the Creative City Project. Adams and Linglebach graduated from the University of Central Florida with degrees in Music Composition and Music Performance, respectively. Outside of noise making Adams and Linglebach teach music lessons in Central Florida and perform in a variety of popular genres.

Crooked Can

Posted on by Thor

Pam Schwartz and I have been to the Crooked Can several times because Pam was hoping to find a puppy to keep her dog, Sprout company. An animal rescue group is at Crooked Can on the weekends with puppies. She was courting a white dog who had some health issues. The pup was brought to her home several times and she went to a dog obedience course to work with her, but in the end the pup went to a family in the country. The puppies name was Heather. She was my speed of a dog. She was calm and collected and just wanted to snuggle and be pet.

After our visit with her on this day we relaxed and watched this musician outside the Plant Street Market. This sketch was a bit of a breakthrough for me in that I treated it like the fast watercolors I usually create. Color was just added in thin layers leaving much of the white background visible. When working digitally I usually tent to work dark to light with only a few bright highlights being pure white. I am finding that this tends to take longer to create and the paining might feel incomplete if not enough time is taken.

We returned to Crooked Can on another day to look at what was supposed to be an Irish Wolfhound. The mutt we met want that bread but instead maybe part pointer and maybe part lab. Anyway we took that pup for a walk and instead of the long series of meeting to see if we were the right fit for the pup, the rescue workers just said, “Do you want to take her home today.” So. This black coated pup came home with us that day. She was named Darcy, which became Darcino, since we were always shouting “Darcy, No!” That name later changed to Donkey which better suited her stubborn disposition. She has turned a coffee table into Swiss cheese as well as an antique couch which she ripped open spewing horse hair everywhere. On the first day, she pooped in my art studio and since then I built a moving box igloo to keep her out of that space. The las thing I need is for that pup to eat my sketchbooks of paintings. She also is so high strung that she is impossible to pet. Pam’s other pup, Sprout takes the main brunt of Donkey’s high stung violent play. They are growling and biting each other constantly. How can that be fun?

Harold’s Auto Center

Posted on by Thor

On a trip to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, Pam and I were advised to stop by Harold’s Auto Center by Rick Kilby. We stopped so I could sketch on the evening we arrived. Unfortunately it almost immediately started to rain so I cut off the sketch as is. I liked that the dinosaur had red eyes. He isn’t menacing though. Instead every line is rounded and smooth offering a soft appealing shape. If I were ever in need of auto repair out that way I would most certainly stop here. It had a Flintstones appeal.

After this we wandered to find the motel which is on the river that comes from the Weeki Wachee spring. The room was nautically themed like an ocean front room with fishing nets and shells. Rich had lent us a kayak, so we had two kayaks to explore the spring the next day.

Breaking Bad Poetry

Posted on by Thor

This Breaking Bad Poetry Show was held in Troy Cunio’s house which is an old bungalow.

There were performances from Breaking
Bad Poets, Joy Stokes, Nathaniel C. Bek, Mata Dor, Leigh Fields, and Troy
Cunio. Jazz guitarist Syoma Klochko accompanied many poets, adding to the hip vibe.

The event will preceded by a flash tattoo
session by Bruce Lea. I decided to start my sketch of the tattoo session. Sine I started my sketch in the living room, I stayed there while the poets read in the dining room. Thankfully I could see the poets but I couldn’t see the crowd listening. There was no cover, but authors had books, buttons, and
other fun stuff for sale.

There will be a Halloween Poetry Slam Hosted by Lee Fields, at The Milk Bar Lounge (2424 E Robinson St, Orlando, Florida 32803). Happy Halloween! Come fright up the night with us as only poets can, with words! We’ll be relaxing the rules as props are allowed, and an extra half point for all competitors in costume! We’re also giving a half point for all Halloween related, spooky, or persona pieces. Come see spoken word performed live, feel art made in the moment, experience slam poetry for yourself. So what are you waiting for? Winner gets $50!
 

Special Event Rules
$5 to enter
No New Piece rule
3/5 judges scoring 0-10
Clean Slate
3:10 time limit (-1 per second over)
1st Round 15 poet cap
2nd Round 5 poets
All original content.
Props and costumes ARE ALLOWED
Poets who come in costume get a +.5 points added to their score
Poets who do pieces that are persona, Halloween, or spooky related get +.5 points.
Highest scoring poet at the end of the night is the winner!

Arnold Palmer Invitational Golf Tournament

Posted on by Thor

The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament in Florida on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned since 1974 by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, a suburb southwest of Orlando. This was in my old stomping grounds. I used to walk or jog past this golf course all the time but this was my first time watching a tournament.

“Formerly the Bay Hill Invitational, the re-named Arnold Palmer
Invitational bears a special aura in
professional golf. The tournament, one of the premiere-event jewels on
the PGA Tour, annually attracts one of the strongest fields of the
season to one of the circuit’s finest courses with the entire production
overseen and directed by one of the game’s all-time greats” – Arnold
Palmer.

Large crowds follow their favorite golfer from hole to hole and some stake out a spot ahead of the pack to watch all the golfers on one particular hole. I decided that second option had to be my strategy to capture the crowd at one spot. I sat in the shade of a tree and got to work. The golfers are the tiniest of specks from this distance but I could tell if a putt was good or bad by the gasps from the audience.

This was my favorite spot because there was a nice water hazard and bleachers had been set up close to the hole. An anhinga aired his wings in the sun oblivious to the human activity around him. I didn’t follow the scores. I don’t know a birdie from a bogie, but I love the spectacle. It was an awesome day of people watching and sketching. Rory McIlroy gave an amazing performance on this day. You  have to admire this almost inhuman level of accuracy. He won a purse of  $8,900,00.

The next Arnold Palmer Invitational Golf Tournament will be March 2-8, 2019. Tickets are available online.

Commissioner Patty Sheehan

Posted on by Thor

This post discusses the shooting that took place at the Pulse
Nightclub on June 12, 2016. It contains difficult content, so please do
not read on if you feel you may be effected. 

This article and sketch have been posted with the express written
permission of the interviewee. Analog Artist Digital World takes the
privacy and wishes of individuals very seriously. 

Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan has just won her bid for re-election when her opponent dropped out of the race. I know her as a strong supporter of the Orlando arts scene and that was exemplified by the art decorating her office in City Hall. It was encouraging to see art by local artists that I admire, and of course Patty is also an artist.

In 2016 she also had just been re-elected and sworn in. She was working on an initiative using left over campaign funds to cut back on graffiti, there was a duplex ordinance in the works, and she was battling puppy mills. Then Pulse happened and everything shifted. When something that horrific happens there is so much to do. Someone can make less than a $700 investment and do millions of dollars in damage in minutes. No one should have that kind of power, but Orlando had to deal with the aftermath. There are so many things that you can never ever prepare for. No other city or any other community, should have to go through this. It was horrific.

Pulse was formerly an Italian restaurant. It was such a pretty club. Ron Legler, was Barbara Poma‘s partner at the time it opened. Ron loved theater, one room was like the Moulan Rouge, it had a huge chandelier, a dance floor, it was beautiful. Then there was a darker bar in the back, then you had this white room. There were planters and LEDs would change the entire color of the room, it was so cool. It was so theatrical and amazing. They remodeled it a couple of times since then. Barbara’s brother had died of AIDS and that fueled Barbara’s passion and why it was called Pulse. It is unfair that something so awful happened to someone who is so good. She had to deal with much of the anger from families.

On June 11, 2016 Patty remembered going for a walk, painting, it was a typical day, but Sunday morning June 12 will stand out for as long as she lives. Her phone was off and she got up around 7:30am to 8am that morning. She went to check her phone and she thought, “Damn, my phone is blowing up.” Everybody was calling. Just then the phone rang, the house phone. It was Frank Billingsley the chief of staff. He said, “Are you sitting down?” He said “I don’t know how to tell you this but 21 people have been shot at Pulse Nightclub.” She relied, “No, no no, please tell me it is not the largest mass shooting. I’ll be right down.” She called Eddie, her police liaison. Eddie used to work off duty at Pulse. He had just stopped since he had other commitments on Sundays. Eddie picked her up. The car pulled right up to Kaley and Orange Avenue by Einstein Beagles. This was about 8:30am.

All the officers faces were ashen. It was very raw. She looked over and saw two people wrapped in tarps. Eddie didn’t want her to see that. She looked down and saw the blood. There were places where people had fallen, and you could  tell they were dragged across the street. There were bullet casings and and she thought “Oh my God, this is Orange Avenue.”  She looked down, and realized she was standing in blood. There was blood everywhere. She walked over near the club and saw Jim Young. He had been her police liaison for a few years, so they were close. She asked, “Where is Barbara?” he said,  “We don’t know yet.” She thought, “No, no, no.” She thought Barbara the club owner was inside.

Mayor Buddy Dyer and several other commissioners went into a command center for an update. It was an air conditioned tent. They said 21 people had died at the time. They were really matter of fact about it and she was devastated. They didn’t understand what she was going through. Thank god Eddie was there. She walked back out with Eddie and Jim, they were her safe emotional space. The governor was there and she just didn’t want to deal with him. He had never been supportive of the LGBTQ community. Terry DeCarlo got there. She just hugged him. Pastor Kevin Cobaris came over and asked if he could prey with them. A picture of that moment went everywhere. Joe Burbank took that picture.

Later at a press conference they said 50 had died including the gunman in the count.  There was a hush. Media are usually always talking but everybody gasped. Media are usually don’t react they are trying to be professional, but she remembered that audible gasp. Everybody was shocked. The  number was unbelievable. She just hugged Terry. So multiple politicians got up to speak and she thought , “No one had said the word, Gay, they didn’t say Latino.” So she got up there and said, “We are a gay lesbian, bisexual, transgender community and we are united. If you think you are going to destroy us you are not because we are a strong, resilient, decent, loving people. This is who we are.” She was mad because she didn’t want them to be erased.

Patty’s phone blew up after her remarks. Everyone wanted to talk to her and a PR person stepped in to handle the deluge. She was told, “You need to be the voice of this, because others will take advantage and you are going to say the right things to help your community even if they are not.” This became her roll. She started doing interviews. She was concerned about Barbara and found out that she had been in Mexico and she was coming back. Thank god she was not inside. But then she thought, she will be devastated that she wasn’t there.

She remembered seeing Christine Leinonenwho kept asking, Where is my son?” Patty could only relate “I didn’t know, and that I’m sorry. It was so hot, and people were sitting on the sidewalks crying. They had nowhere to go. They were taken to the hotel but there was too much of a scene. People
were just looking for their kids. That was so heartbreaking and there was no information yet. Finally they opened up the Beardall Center so they had somewhere to go, looking for some answer.

Then she would get shocked back into anger since CNN wanted to do an interview with Pam Bondi and Patty together. So Pam walked right up to her and said, “You know Patty we have to do something to help the LGBTQ community.” Patty responded “I look forward to the change.” She needed to  be diplomatic since State benefits were on the line and the families were going to need the funeral benefits. Patty was already set with a mic. She thought, “I can’t do this.” A producer walked up and asked if she was OK with doing the interview and she said no. The FBI brought resources, the State people brought resources, they were helping. As much some politicians did not help, Senator Bill Nelson was getting families visas and all the things that were needed. Not all families were here they had to come from other places.

Patty met Christopher Hanson on the street. She had seen him on the news. She told him he needed to go to the Center, to get help, there were counselors there. There was another young man, he came up to her between media interviews and said, “My friend is in my apartment and he has been shot. He is undocumented.” She grabbed him by the arm and said, “You have to promise me, Immigration is not going to come, ICE is not going to come, promise me you will take your friend to the hospital.” Stuff like that was heart breaking. Patty went from media tent to media tent. Her goal was to talk about the LGBTQ community, The Latin American community, the people of color who were impacted. She wanted to talk about victims and to get blood to the blood banks, and to raise money to help. Equality Florida had a Go Fund Me already in place. She wanted to be sure people gave to a trusted source. There were many scams afterwards.

She had been on the street from 8:30 in the morning until 11:30 that night. She stayed the next day all day as well. It was so hot. Her feet were burnt from the soles of her shoes. It was a frenzy. She finally got back to her office later that week. She expected a pile of complaints about the streets being closed, hundreds of people were being inconvenienced. There was only one complaint from a guy that hadn’t bothered to renew his drivers license. Everyone else was offering help. There were people on the street with food. All these restaurants that were loosing business brought out food to all the people at the scene. Ace hardware was was cooking hot dogs for everybody on their grills. They were closed they lost thousands of dollars in business. The church put out drinks for everybody. We recharged our phones at the church and they put pastries and food out for everyone. Everyone was so kind. If there is a message to this, it is that love wins, that we all came together. You can never just turn the lights off, that says that darkness wins. You want to be a light to the world you want to show love. That is what Orlando did.

Equality Florida wanted to have the vigil right away. The city tried to discourage them for as long as they could, and they had the vigil that following Monday. Patty wasn’t even planning to go. She was honestly mad at them because they still had officers on the street. There were so many resources that were needed elsewhere. She decided to go just to find Eddie because there were just no cops. Should something happen she wanted to be there with Eddie to help protect people. She wasn’t planning to go on stage but when she walked up, people were clapping and she was overwhelmed. She didn’t feel worthy of the applause, because they had died. People told her she did a good job but it wasn’t about her getting attention, it was about the 49 it was the worst moment of her life. She doesn’t remember what she said. Everything said those first 4 or 5 days was all off the cuff. She wanted to tell the story of Orlando, many people have this idea of Orlando being the theme parks, but we have a downtown. As mad as she was at Equality Florida it was a beautiful thing that happened. She remembered the bells ringing 49 times. She approached a news cameraman and asked how long it took to ring the bells 49 times. It took eight and half minutes. An eternity.

Patty lost half her friends to AIDS between the age of 25 and 30. she
dealt with some horrific things in her life, but it prepared her so she
could be on that street to try and help those families.  Don Price put aside 49 cemetery plots at Greenwood Cemetery in case they were needed. There was a family with a divorce, and the dad took all the money and he buried his son in a paupers cemetery. So they are trying to get him back to Orlando but he has to be cremated and they are Catholic, there are all these issues.  It is still going on. It was great of the hospital to forgive the bills. But there is continuing care. The money raised by the one fund was enough to bury victims but it wasn’t enough to help the most horrifically wounded victims. There are about ten of them that have injuries that are going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Patty has become friends with a lot of the survivors. They are amazing, beautiful, loving, and forgiving people. They
did not deserve what happened to them. Many people have moved on. One
survivor went to work and sat down and the incision in his stomach
opened up. He doesn’t get to move on. We are still healing from Pulse. We
are probably never going to be the same.

Parkland Collection Effort Townhall Meeting

Posted on by Thor

On Valentines Day, February 14, 2018 a student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida and began a shooting that killed 17 people and wounded 14 others. In March almost one month after the shooting Jeff Schwartz from the Parkland Historical Society invited Pam Schwartz from the Orange County Regional History Center went to Parkland to give advise on how items left at the Parkland Memorial might be collected and archived.  Several memorials had formed in Parkland following the shooting. One was at the high school along the fence that ran along the road in front of the school and another at the main stage at Pine Trails Park. An event was planned for the park so the memorials needed to be removed. A similar situation was faced in Orlando following the Pulse shooting in that makeshift memorials at Lake Eola had to be removed because of July 4th fireworks the following month.

The Parkland Historical Society is a small organization so they did not have the same resources that the Orange County Regional History Center had in Orlando. Instead of trained museum staff they needed rely on volunteers to collect and store memorial items. Pam offered practical advice on how to collect and preserve. A City hall employee took notes and a discussion began on the best practical approaches. Emotions ran high at the meeting since there is no one right answer about what is best for the community.

Volunteers dismantled the makeshift memorials on March 28, 2018. They took
away the 17 white crosses and Jewish stars bearing the names of the
students and faculty killed in the Valentine’s Day shooting. At this City Hall meeting it was decided that it made sense for students, parents, and friends and family of victims, to take part in the effort. Teddy bears, posters, and hand written letters and poems were stored in cardboard boxes. They went to climate controlled storage at Florida Atlantic University and will be saved so that 100 years from now the memories will always remain alive.

Zachary Knudson, a sculptor who has done several public works of art and memorials, teamed up with other volunteers to donate their time and resources in planning a permanent tribute. There was talk among Parkland Historical Society members of vacuum sealing some memorial tribute items inside a glass container. However humidity and the intense Florida Sun make even vacuum sealed items impractical to preserve. This sculpture proposed by Zackery is more like a 15 foot tall prism or stained glass sculpture. Kevin Roth, the CEO of the
Vistaglass Direct, a glass fabrication company is donating glass for
the project. There have been talks of possibly placing the sculpture at Stoneman Douglass High School.

On February 14, 2019, one year after the shooting the community gathered at Pine Trails Park (10559 Trails End, Parkland, FL 33076) to remember and honor the 17 victims with a moment of silence. The
City also hosted a brief Interfaith ceremony for the community. The park was be open both before and after the ceremony. Therapy dogs
and counselors were be onsite throughout the day. In lieu of
mementos, cards, flowers, pictures, or other such expressions of
condolences, people were asked to bring a canned food items to support efforts as a day of service.

The Legislature passed a package to address school safety in wake of the
mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the package
included $1 million for a permanent memorial to the 17 victims at the
high school in northwestern Broward County.

Story Club: What a Mess

Posted on by Thor

Orlando Story Club is a live storytelling competition which takes place at The Abbey in downtown Orlando. Anyone can enter by putting their name in the story hat, where 10 names are randomly selected to compete. Each storyteller is given five minutes to impress the audience and the top three tellers take home prizes.
All proceeds benefit local charities. It’s a night of laughter, fun, and
connection!

Judges are randomly selected from the audience and special story prizes
are awarded at the end of the evening. Other audience participation
opportunities abound.

I enjoy sketching knowing I will have only five minutes to catch one of the competitors. Despite that challenge I enjoy pushing the sketch to a finish as best as possible. These are everyday stories from peoples lives and you never know how strange, surreal or common a story might be. Most tug at my heart strings since we all are making it through this game of life together, despite the challenges and setbacks.

At specific events around town, Danielle Ziss and Bobby Wesley set up a story wall. Event attendees fill out note cards with “one-liners” – short
stories that fit with the story themes. One-liners can be as short as a
word or as long as the note card allows. It is a fun way for audiences
to participate in Orlando Story Club, even if they haven’t attended a
show!

One-liners are a huge part of Orlando Story Club live
shows. Between each randomly selected storyteller, our hosts read the
one-liners to the audience. They are completely anonymous and fit with
the selected theme of the evening, allowing all storytellers and story
listeners a chance to participate.

Example one-liner:

Theme: What a Mess!

I woke up to find my toddler holding a pair of scissors and a handful of hair. It was my hair. Who knew I could pull off bangs?

The next Orlando Story Club: Best of 2019, Homecoming, will be on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at 7 PM – 9:30 PM
at The Abbey
(100 S Eola Drive, Suite 100, Orlando, Florida 32801). Tickets are $5.

Call Responders Audrey Davidson and Evalyn Casper

Posted on by Thor

This post discusses the shooting that took place at the Pulse
Nightclub on June 12, 2016. It contains difficult content, so please do
not read on if you feel you may be effected. 

This article and sketch have been posted with the express written
permission of the interviewees. Analog Artist Digital World takes the
privacy and wishes of individuals very seriously. 

Audrey Davidson stated that, training to become a 911 operator took five weeks followed with on the floor training for three months. Over 1000 hours of training were involved. She was a 911 operator when Pulse happened. Evalyn Casper used to watch Rescue 911 as a child religiously so growing up she thought 911 operators were pretty cool. She knew someone at the sheriffs office and they suggested she apply. Milestones in her career always seem to surrounded big events. She was hired at the sheriffs office on September 11, 2002 one year after the attack on the World Trade Center. She liked that this job allowed her to really apply herself and work her way up. All the training was offered on a platter. She was hungry for everything taking every course offered. She started training others. On June 12, 2017 she was promoted as supervisor on year after the Pulse shooting.

Being a 911operator is a stressful job. The highest stress comes when operators are inundated with a high volume of calls.  Everyone has cell phones now, so that even a back up on I-4 can generate a huge number of calls that can shut them down. An operator is supposed to systematically treat each call the same. When there are so many calls rolling it it becomes difficult. Even if you had 300 calls about the same incident you still have to process it like it is a new call. The next call might be the one that saves a life.

The day before Pulse they worked a similar overnight shift from about, 6:30pm to 6:30am. Evalyn was training a guy, it was his third day, so she was on the 911 desk. She let her trainee know that Saturday nights can get a little crazy. She advised her trainee that if things got fast paced she would move him over so she could process the calls faster. Everyone has a cell phone, and everybody is a witness so they could get flooded with calls. Most calls are verbal arguments and batteries.

Typically with a shooting there is a spurt of calls and usually the police are there within minutes. People see the lights and sirens and the calls stop. Most who call haven’t seen the incident as it happened. A 911 Operators questioning is very limited. First get the address, get the suspect description, see if the suspect is still there. The police make sure the scene is clear for fire and rescue to come in.

Audrey said that on June 12, 2016, the phones were ringing off the hook.  The fist call she got was from a guy that said, “There was a shooting at Pulse.” Pulse is not in Orange County Sheriff‘s jurisdiction, it is in Orlando Police Department‘s jurisdiction. So she transferred him over to Orlando Police. While she was waiting for Orlando Police to pick up, she thought to herself, “Pulse is a really weird place for a shooting. Pulse is just not the kind of place where a shooting would happen.” The call rang back into their com center. When OPDs phones get overwhelmed their calls all roll over to the Sheriffs call center. Their lines were overwhelmed so calls sent to them just bounced back with other another Sheriff’s operator picking up. The first time she realized it was an active shooter was when a supervisor stood up and told everyone, “There is an active shooter at Pulse.” Information needed to be picked up for every call, then move on to the next call. All the calls blurred together, “Do you have any information you can tell us? Can you tell where he is? Can you tell me what he looks like? If they said, no, the caller would be told that Sheriffs were on the way and the operator had to move on to the next call.

One call stood out for Audrey.  A woman was calling from a 7-11 in the heart of OPD jurisdiction. She was calling about a man who was drunk outside of her store. Obviously the operators had bigger problems at the time. Her information was gathered, what he looked like what he was doing. Audrey had to inform her that they were responding to a very large scale incident at the time. She told the woman to lock the door if he was outside. The very next call was from someone inside the bathroom at Pulse. Operators were informed to collect information and then hang up the phone, but she couldn’t hang up the phone on someone who was dying in a bathroom. He was someone she could have known. That could have been her, she had been to that nightclub. While talking to him, she started crying. She told him, “I’m sorry this happened to you.” She just wanted him to know that someone cared about what happened to him. She couldn’t get his name because he was whispering and the shooter was in the bathroom. It was hard. She stayed on the phone until it went silent. The call was maybe a couple off minutes but it felt like an eternity.

911 operators talk to people all the time who are very hysterical and have been in horrible situations, who have been shot, but the reality is they never speak to someone who is dying. Usually it is other people calling in. That call from the Pulse bathroom was difficult. She is glad she got a chance to let him know she cared. But it was the worst day of her life. It was the worst day for many people. It was hard.  Many family members were calling in wanting to know about their loved ones. A list was started of family names and phone numbers so families could be contacted if needed.  But they still didn’t know how many people were in the nightclub. About 4am the calls started dying off. On a short break, Evelyn called some friends to make sure they were OK. On the beak it all seemed surreal. It was so big, it was hard to process what had just happened. They were still in this limbo of not knowing the official count. They had to go back to their desks and start taking other calls until the shift was over at 6am.

Evalyn remembered that for two solid hours, no one took a break. There are 15 lines. Nobody got off the phones, no one broke down and left. It was upsetting, but everyone kept processing the calls. Usually when an operator takes a difficult call they can walk off the floor for a bit and regain their composure, but there just wasn’t time. All the calls were coming from a particular cell tower on Esther Street. So they all knew that all the calls were related. Evalyn took over for her trainee. The first call was from Duncan Donuts, They claimed that a shot came through their glass or they were hearing shooting. That call was transferred to OPD. All the circuits were busy. The next call was a mom, who was hysterical, wanting to know where her son was. She could not help her. She just wanted to stay on the phone and cry, but she couldn’t. The next call was a guy hiding in a closet inside Pulse, he kept saying, “Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?”  The guy Evalyn was speaking to was whispering. He was in
the upstairs closet. She told him “Just stay were you are. Don’t move,
don’t move, don’t move.” What else could she tell him? There is no
script.

Many were worried it would take some time to get inside. In reality compared to normal it took them very little time. Afterwards they found out what happened. At the time they didn’t have any information to give people. All they could say was, “We are there, we are coming, we are going to help you.” There had never been a active shooter in Orlando on that scale.  There is no protocol. Hang ups were not called back which they usually do. There were too many calls. They had to change their gears and triage things themselves. 400 hours of training stipulate that operators should stay on a call in an emergency situation until deputies arrive and are with the caller. But no call that night could be completed in that way. That left operators having to hang up the phone.

While Audrey cried, Evalyn remembered shaking uncontrollably. The adrenaline was running through her. She tried to make herself stop shaking but that made it worse. Despite this, she kept typing, and talking. She was on auto pilot. After their shift was over they had a debriefing. The critical incident stress management team came in and everyone talked about what just happened. It was quiet and surreal. Everyone felt numb. They stressed that it was alright open up to the feelings that would come. They shouldn’t mask anything or hide anything. There were people crying. Management also advised them to not watch the news.

When Evalyn got home she texted her mom who was asleep. “You are going to see something on the news, we worked this call, we are OK.” Around 7am they fell asleep. When they got up the next day for the next shift, they found out that a
lot more people than they thought had been killed in the club. Evalyn woke up to about 27 missed calls. They didn’t go in to work the next day. They started seeing just how many people had been shot and the reality sank in. They were angry.

They went to the vigil at Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. It felt good to be out in the community. It was somber, but also it was good to see that everyone was together. There was a feeling of collective support. The shooting directly affected everyone in that we are all Orange County citizens, not everyone was from the LGBT community but they were still there. Muslims, Hispanics, Pastors, all gathered together. It seemed that everyone came and converged into Orlando from other parts of the country. Then the church bells rang 49 times. That was brutal. That was probably the worst feeling listening to that. They went back to work the following Thursday still feeling a bit angry.

There was a lot of pomp and circumstance. It was like a circus. Many wanted to reach out and congratulate them, thank them for their service. Politician, Rick Scott, went to their com center walking around while they were taking calls. Audrey couldn’t shake his hand, she was so mad. There was no sense of normalcy. For the longest time they were getting recognition. It felt like they were getting too much attention. While they shook Rick Scott’s hand, HR was telling them that they would have to have therapy. They were required to go to 3 sessions of therapy with a psychologist. Its not just about the trauma of the shooting but everything else bubbled to the surface. They gave different ways of coping, like grounding yourself. Mainly they said, “Don’t beat yourself up for feeling the way you do.”

At the one year remembrance at Lake Eola, they got to hug the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. They saw the Mural that was painted. They sang and then the angels came out and then they announced the names again. It was cool to see the families cheering when their loved one’s name was called. They recently stopped by the Pulse temporary memorial and walked around. They cried when they saw the breech in the wall, from the swat team, it was surreal to see how they it was showcased. It suggested that this how lives were saved but this is also how it all ended.