BEND, Ore. – Some news you read once and move on. This one I had to read twice. After 23 days in the hospital and four surgeries, Becky Drury is home. And on her way out, the nurses who’d cared for her all that time came out to see her off. “The nurses all gathered and applauded her as we rounded the corner to the elevators. Tears were shed all around!” her husband, Will Drury, wrote in an online update.

Sit with that picture for a second. A hallway, a corner, the elevators just ahead, and the people who’d cared for her for more than three weeks, clapping her toward the door. Nurses see a lot of goodbyes, and they don’t all look like that. Will didn’t write that a few people got misty. He wrote that tears were shed all around, and I believe him.

Becky teaches at Silver Rail Elementary School, and she’s a survivor of the Silver Rail shooting. As KTVZ reported, she’s now back home. Will shared the news the way you’d want to hear it from someone you love: “After 23 days and four surgeries, our beautiful Becky is finally home!” You can feel the relief in every word of it, especially that “finally.”

Look at those two smiles on that couch. That’s what home looks like after a month nobody should ever have to go through. Her healing isn’t finished, and there’s still a long road ahead. But she’s taking the next steps from home, with Will right there next to her. If you’d like to help her along that road, the Drury family has a GoFundMe page for Becky’s healing journey.

Now it’s the kids’ turn

Becky’s a teacher, so it feels right that the story doesn’t stop with her. The Silver Rail Children’s Fund has been quietly showing up for the youngest survivors and their families. The nonprofit says it has served more than 550 survivors and family members so far, through pumpkin patch visits, sensory art activities, therapy dogs and child care. None of that makes headlines, but it’s exactly the kind of care that helps a family get through one more day.

Now the fund is looking at the classroom. “What’s next is academics. Our kids have missed nearly a month of school and trauma makes it hard to focus even once they are back,” it said in an update. If you’ve ever watched a child try to find their footing after something hard, you know how true that is. Going back to school is one thing. Being able to sit still, listen and learn again is another.

How Bend can help them catch up

The fund says it’s now recruiting and paying licensed K-5 tutors, and the first family applications are already in. It’s also “asking the community to fund tutoring hours, learning materials and quiet space for it.” That’s not a big, sweeping ask. It’s an hour with a patient tutor, a stack of books, and a calm room where a kid can just breathe and work.

I keep coming back to those nurses in the hallway. They couldn’t undo what happened, but they could make sure Becky left knowing how many people were in her corner. These kids deserve to feel that same thing. Those nurses gave Becky her send-off. Now the rest of us can help the kids the fund is looking after find their way back to learning.