“This Is just the beginning of Heather’s legacy”: mourning and a call to action

At a theater in Charlottesville, Va., the mother of Heather Heyer issued a rallying cry.

“They tried to kill my child to shut her up,” Susan Bro said. “Well, guess what. You just magnified her.”

She invoked her daughter’s famous Facebook post — “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

“She paid attention. She made a lot of us pay attention,” Bro said. “I want you to pay attention. Find what’s wrong — don’t ignore it, don’t look the other way. You make a point to look at it and say to yourself, ‘What can I do to make a difference?’ ”

Bro had struggled to climb the stairs to the lectern where she spoke. As she slowly made her way toward the microphone, she told the crowd she’d aged 10 years in the past few days. But once there, she stood resolute, gazing out at the crowd, telling mourners and all other listeners they needed to “carry Heather’s spark” and confront injustice with “righteous action.”

“That’s how you’re going to make my child’s death worthwhile,” Bro said. “I’d rather have my child, but by golly, if I’ve got to give her up we’re going to make it count.”

Heyer, 32, was killed on Saturday, as she was demonstrating against a white supremacist rally. Police say James Alex Fields Jr., who marched with fascists on Saturday and reportedly had a longstanding interest in white supremacy, intentionally drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters.