A year after the Annunciation shooting, Harper Moyski's family says her light "didn't go out, it shifted"

Just one year ago, a Minneapolis community was changed forever when a shooting at a church filled with children on their first day of Mass for the school year killed two students and injured several others.

Third grader Fletcher Merkel was just 8 years old. Harper Moyski was 10. As Heather Brown reports, Harper's family says the fifth grader had a knack for making every day count.

At a community celebration of life last September, Harper's parents, Jackie Flavin and Mike Moyski, remembered their daughter as fierce, funny and entirely her own person.

"She lived big and squeezed the most stories she could out of every moment," Flavin said.

"Harper was an original person through and through," she said. "She was sharp, curious, funny and fierce. She had her own point of view, her own sense of style, her own way of being. She didn't wait for permission, she didn't water herself down — and yes, she was hard to parent. But we loved it."

Flavin said one of the lessons the family has carried through their grief is that Harper's spirit lives on in the community around them.

"One of the most powerful things that we learned from Harper, and through the heartbreak of losing her, is that light is not something that we carry alone — it's something we hold together and pass around," she said. "It's something we share and something that binds us together. Harper understood that too. She didn't try to carry things by herself. She let us in when things were hard."

Flavin described a daughter whose imagination knew no limits.

"She was always coming up with creative ideas — elaborate games, imaginary worlds, art projects," Flavin said. "She could build a whole universe in an afternoon and invite you right into it. One of our favorite things she used to do was set up a little store in her room, where she'd sell stuff she'd made or collected from around the house."

The pricing, she added with a laugh, depended entirely on how nice you'd been to her that day.

Harper's father, Mike Moyski, thanked the community for its support in the aftermath of the shooting.

"You've lifted us up during the hardest days of our lives, and we are so grateful," he said.

He also reflected on the love the family poured into Harper and her sibling, Quinn.

"We poured our hearts, the very best parts of ourselves, into Harper and Quinn, and that kind of love doesn't disappear or die," he said. "It deepens. It strengthens. It becomes a force capable of carrying us, changing us."

Flavin echoed that sentiment.

"Real love is what changes the world," she said. "When Harper died, her light didn't go out. It shifted. It moved into all the people who cared about her."

Two months after the memorial, the community gathered again — this time at the Harper Moyski Volleyball Tournament, a benefit organized in her honor.

"Harper loved volleyball and animals and her friends, and she brought joy and laughter to all of us, all the time," said Katie Abrams, an Annunciation parent.

Flavin recalled that her daughter approached everything with full enthusiasm.

"Harper didn't do anything halfway," she said. "She was extra in the very best way."

In December, students at Annunciation performed in their school's Christmas program, including a rendition of "Can't Stop the Feeling," one of Harper's favorite songs.

Music teacher Kristin Stang said the performance was meant to wrap the community — and the memory of both children — in comfort.

"I hope they feel surrounded in love and wrapped in it and fully embraced," Stang said. "And that's a love that we have for Harper and Fletcher that doesn't go away, and that kind of love doesn't fade."

Fletcher was a kid who spent most of his free time on the lake. As Steve Hartman shares in a separate report, Fletcher too had a big personality that was hard to miss.