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Victims Continued from Page 1
the only two to survive. Now,
two years later, although life
is forever changed for both of
them, they remain strong and
resilient, determined to infuse
their lives with meaning.

Although some of their
injuries are permanent, both
Leger and Wedner say they
have adjusted.

“I’m doing well physically,”
said Leger, a retired nurse and
UPMC chaplain, who was shot
in the chest. “Some days are
better than others. I still have
some physical problems that will
probably be around for the rest
of my days that are the result of
this. But I’m alive, and they are
manageable, and here I am.”
Wedner, a former dental
hygienist, who was shot in the
arm, acknowledged her hand
“is not going to be 100 percent,”
but she does have use of it.

“Some things are a little more
challenging,” she said. “I’m
grateful to have my arm and my
hand. So I just deal with it.”
Both are grateful to have
survived, and are resolute to
get the most out of life.

While the pandemic has
caused each of them to shift
some plans — Wedner and
her husband, Ron, planned
trips that had to be canceled,
and Leger’s plans to provide
nursing services to the under-
served are now on hold — they
are both filling their days with
activities that bring them joy
and fulfillment.

As he did before the
pandemic, Leger volunteers
with the CheckMates program
through AgeWell Pittsburgh,
making calls to those who are
homebound. He also checks in
with members of Dor Hadash
and is active on the steering
committee of the 10.27 Healing
“Life goes on. You have to keep going. My
mother would want us to do that and I have to
live on for her and through her.”
ANDREA WEDNER
16 OCTOBER 22, 2020
Partnership, which helps those
impacted by the shooting and
others who have experienced
trauma induced by hate. And
he writes a lot, especially poetry.

“As Jews, we’re not supposed
to really retire,” Leger said.

Wedner, who is also on the
steering committee of the 10.27
Healing Partnership, fills her
days babysitting her grand-
daughters, baking, taking
walks, reading and keeping in
touch with family and friends.

In the weeks and months
following the shooting, Wedner,
like others who were directly
impacted by the massacre, was
showered with messages of
love and support from the local
community, as well as from
around the world. She is still
feeling that love, which she calls
“the key to my healing.”
“I’ve met so many wonderful
people from this,” she said.

“And it’s enriched my life.”
As the two-year commemora-
tion of the shooting approaches,
Wedner anticipates spending the
day with her family.

“I know last year, leading up
to it, and that day, I heard from
so many people, and it was
really helpful,” she said. “It’s so
helpful that we get the support
we get from family, friends,
just the community.”
Leger is trying “not to
overplan,” for Oct. 27, 2020, he
said, anticipating he will spend
the day with his wife, Ellen,
and Miri Rabinowitz, whose
husband Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz
was killed during the massacre.

“I’m trying not to overthink it
and to let whatever emotions
come my way have a place to be.”
He has, though, been trying
to “fill in some blanks,” he said.

Not only has he finally started
to examine, and process, his
medical records concerning his
injuries, but he is also trying to
identify all “the helpers.”
“I’ve met with some of the
police officers who have been
involved, who came to help, and
it led me to reach out to the
JEWISH EXPONENT
Dan Leger 
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Public Safety department to try
to get a list of just who were
all the people who were there
that day,” he said. “Who were the
helpers? Who came? I’m begin-
ning to compile those names and
it is just an extraordinary list, an
extraordinary number of people
who ran in our direction. They
didn’t run away. They ran in our
direction and they came to help.”
He hopes to be able to
reach out to some of those
people, and, if he is allowed,
to acknowledge them publicly.

The trial of the gunman still
has not been set, the delay due
in part to the federal govern-
ment seeking the death penalty.

While Wedner does not spend
a lot of time thinking about the
eventual trial, Leger finds its
delay difficult.

“It’s a prolonging and
agonizing process that needs to
come to as much closure as it can,”
he said. “When people lose their
lives, the people who lose those
people from their very existence
don’t have the opportunity of
closure. But there are opportu-
nities for closure about certain
elements of the experience.”
He is trying, he said, to
“learn as much as I can about
why it is that we have such a
proclivity in our culture for
Andrea Wedner
Photo by Ron Wedner
not being able to communicate
well enough so that something
like this can be avoided.”
There are many opportu-
nities, Leger stressed, to honor
the memories of “the beautiful
people that we lost that day, things
like learning opportunities and
service opportunities. If anyone
ever thinks they need an excuse
to do something good, think
about one of these people and
do something in their memory.

That’s how we keep them alive.”
For Wedner, the memory
of her mother, Rose Mallinger,
is constant. She remains an
inspiration and she is “always
around.” “Life goes on,” Wedner said.

“You have to keep going. My
mother would want us to do
that and I have to live on for her
and through her. A lot of the
things I do and say, I think of
her. She’s always there. She keeps
me going. She was a strong lady,
so I think I may have inherited
that from her. She was pretty
amazing. She was a hoot. She
was something, she really was. I
miss her. We all miss her.” l
Toby Tabachnick is the editor of
the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle,
a Jewish Exponent-affiliated
publication. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM