Aurora's Day 6

July 25th, 2012
05:17 PM ET



.. Randi Kaye reports.

Reporter’s Notebook: Aurora, Day 6

It’s day six for our team in Aurora, Colorado. The days are long and the temperatures are hot…most days reach 100 plus degrees. But how can we complain? We can’t.

Twelve people are dead, dozens more injured.. some still fighting to hang on in the very hospitals we drive by each day to and from our live shot locations. I wake up in the morning and I often think of 6-year-old Veronica who lost her life in the theater that night. Her mother, who was shot in the neck, may not have been told yet her little girl is dead.

I also think about Caleb Medley. All he ever wanted to be was a stand-up comedian. Now he’s trapped in a medically induced coma in the ICU. He missed the birth of his baby boy Tuesday morning and may not even know he’s now a father. He has brain damage and has already lost an eye. His wife wasn’t shot that night, but no doubt she has emotional scars.

Why is it that tragedy breeds gratitude? Covering the story of the Aurora movie theater shootings, like many assignments over the years, puts life in perspective.

It’s not that we need tragedy to remind us of all the beautiful things in our own lives - children, work we love, wonderful parents - but tragedy has a funny way of doing exactly that.

No doubt all our of CNN teams will leave Aurora exhausted – physically in some cases, like the crews that haul all our heavy gear, but most – if not all of us – will leave here with a heavy heart. We’re all anxious to get home to hug our loved ones a little closer, kiss our children a couple of extra times as they lay sleeping in their beds.

While we may never come across a villain like the people in Aurora did – and I pray none of us do – we’ll remember how fleeting life can be. No matter how many times we all remind ourselves to enjoy more and live life to the fullest, our busy lives often let us forget.

Don’t forget. Don’t forget to live and enjoy and take in every wonderful moment that comes your way, and don’t forget the people who were inside theater 9.