Victim's son uses relief trip to aid healing

(AP) — It was supposed to be a fun, rewarding spring break trip for students from Columbus Signature Academy — New Tech campus, who were coming together to do Hurricane Katrina relief work in New Orleans.

With details of the shooting still coming out and the sting of loss still raw in his heart, Edwards boarded a bus with his friends and classmates and embarked on the 13-hour journey to help a group of people who had lost as much as he had.

Rather than trying to offer words of comfort to help him through his grief, the students said they decided the best course of action was to encourage their friend, regardless of what he was feeling.

[...] while his time in the south provided Edwards with a chance to laugh with his friends and honor the legacy of his father, it also forced him to deal with feelings of guilt — guilt for leaving his family, and guilt for having fun while his mother and sister were dealing with their own grief back home in Columbus.

Members of the extended Edwards family had flown in to help his mother and sister through their struggles, which gave the New Tech student some comfort in knowing that he had not left his immediate family completely alone.

On their final night in New Orleans, the New Tech students never went to sleep but instead stayed up and talked for hours.

The heart-to-heart discussions with his friends helped Edwards work through the emotions he had bottled up inside in the week since his father's death and prepared him to return home to face the next chapter of his life.

While he has many career aspirations, including a dream of enrolling in the Air Force Academy, Edwards said there will be one overarching goal for his life that he always will carry with him: becoming a man his father would be proud of.