The woman who lost both her husband and her son in the Kalamazoo shooting is expressing her heartbreaking grief to Facebook.
Laurie Smith's husband, Rich, and son, Tyler, were two of the six people killed on Saturday during a series of shootings in the Kalamazoo area.
The father and son, 53 and 17, respectively, were killed at the Seelye Kia dealership in Kalamazoo County.
Jason Brian Dalton, a former Uber driver, has been charged with six counts of murder in the shootings.
On Monday, Smith took to Facebook to publicly share tributes to her son and husband. She began with her husband, who she described as her "love, soulmate, and best friend."
"I miss you so much, Rich, you were my best friend, my rock and I'm lost without you," she wrote in a subsequent post.
She then shared a series of photos of Tyler, who she says had yet to even graduate from high school.
"I am so grateful to have been blessed with a sweet, caring, witty, handsome boy for almost 18 years....so proud of who he had become as a young man," she wrote.
She added that she feels "lost without my boys."
Smith then shared a heartbreaking reality of what it is like to lose a loved one to gun violence.
She wrote:
Laying in bed trying to comprehend what has happened in the past 24+ hrs...wishing its all a bad dream and they'll be here when i wake up. 💔 I want to thank everyone for the unbelievable outpouring of care, concern, love, prayer , meals, help....and everything that you've shown me and my family. I am numb....I don't know what to say or do and so i wanted to make sure everyone knows how much we appreciate everything...because I am often not thinking clearly and may not say it when i should. Thank you all for your support as Em and I and our whole family try to figure out how to go on after losing our son, grandson, brother, cousin, nephew, friend, husband, soulmate, uncle, daddy, son-in-law, love of my life...
Smith also wrote a message to her daughter Emily, saying that her pain is amplified by the fact that she has to watch her daughter grieve too.
"I promise and vow with every ounce of energy and love that i have that i will take care of you and will be there for you and will devote myself to making life as awesome as i can for you," Smith said.
Some of Smith's messages have been shared more than 100 times. Many people are flooding the family with messages of support and love.
Funeral arrangements for the father and son are pending, according to an online obituary.