Diane Ditrick and her wife, Tammy Gappen, left Orlando for Bel Air in 2011, after spending 20 years in the Florida city. On Sunday, Ditrick was shocked to learn the Orlando gay club Pulse became the site of the nation's worst mass shooting.
"I was devastated. I could hardly believe that would happen there," Ditrick said Thursday, standing in the sanctuary of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harford County.
She and Gappen were two of about 30 people who came out to the church off Route 22 near Churchville Thursday for a special prayer service for Orlando and its victims.
"Over 100 people were shot, by one person with one weapon. Part of it is because we have a culture of violence, we have an addiction to violence," the Rev. Lisa Ward intoned during the service, in which she described the 49 people killed and 53 injured as victims of a broader darkness.
"It was not a 'lone shooter' that chose violence. This culture chooses violence, and we come together to say, 'No,'" Ward told those gathered.
She criticized the media for focusing on aspects like the shooter's motivation, "by making it a single story that doesn't have anything to do with us," and said she hopes society can embrace people "whoever they are, however they are and whomever they love."
The service, called "Prayers for Orlando, Prayers for Our Lives," included songs like Michael Jackson's "Heal the World," and "The Prayer" by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.
Ward invited attendees to share things they fear, things that make them angry and things that make them sad in light of the shooting. She let each person choose a stone from a box and let the stone represent what grounds them. Everyone then lit a candle for a few silent moments.
In the wake of another mass shooting, Ward encouraged people to practice kindness, see if LGBT people are especially affected or having emotional difficulties and say no to violence or justifying violence.
Natalie Gallagher, a Bel Air resident originally from South Africa, said she came to the service in hopes of giving the tragic event the honor it deserves.
"I guess I just wanted to come to a place where they could acknowledge and talk about what happens, in a sacred way," Gallagher explained.
Ditrick said she was stunned by the violence aimed at the LGBT community, "especially since we have come so far, over the last five or six years."
Orlando's community "was very close-knit, because it's not as liberal as it is here," she said. "It's a really strong gay community there."
Ditrick said her core group of friends is still in Orlando.
"It is hard not to be there now," she said. "It's very scary, and how do you bring love forward? And that's where we need to focus."