As a country newspaper editor I had report on the family of five who panicked at the swimming hole and drowned in waist-deep water, the young man who cleaned his shotgun before walking into the back yard and blowing his father to bits, or the high school classmate who returned a broken man from Vietnam, lost what was left of his mind, killed his stepdaughter, and eluded authorities for days before capture.

What my news own coverage experiences have in common with today’s elementary school shooting is the commonality of human tragedy. The difference is the scale of what has transpired. It is unimaginable to me.

Because I knew how the events I covered impacted families, and how they forever altered the course of individual lives, every aspect of covering these stories was disturbing to me personally. Writing the stories was difficult. Editing them was painful. Writing the headlines was sad duty. With my colleagues, we performed these tasks because the public needed to have timely details of these events related accurately. It was never an easy task.

The end of the day was an emotionally exhausting and numbing experience for those of us who merely covered the event, as I’m sure it was for investigators and first responders. Yet, we all got to go home. To this day, I cannot fathom the depth and breadth of the pain and sense of loss for the survivors who mourn the victims.

I hope I never will have that knowledge.