WAUKESHA, Wis. — It’s been one year since the lives of those in the Waukesha community changed forever.
On Nov. 21, 2021, Darrell Brooks Jr. drove through the Waukesha Christmas parade, killing six and leaving dozens of others injured.
Allo Chocolat is in downtown Waukesha. It’s one of dozens of businesses that witnessed the tragedy outside its front door, as it sat on the parade route.
“It was like a battlefield. It was a terrible thing that happened,” Tawnya Shanklin said.
Shanklin is the co-owner of Allo Chocolat and said she remembers that day like it was yesterday. She's one of many who said it's hard to believe it's been a year since the parade tragedy; it's still fresh in the community's mind.
“It’s hard to believe it was a year ago... It's very difficult to fathom that I guess," she said. "But here we are."
Throughout the past year, many have had time to reflect back on that day and work on healing the pain and trauma they experienced.
Peggy Ballmann is an employee at Allo Chocolat; Ballmann was born and raised in Waukesha. While she wasn’t there on Nov. 21, 2021, she said she’s been able to watch this community’s strength grow over the past year.
“It’s just such a nice outpouring of standing together,” Ballmann said.
While the healing process is nowhere near done, Shanklin said she, and many others, are proud of what their community has been able to accomplish this past year after the unimaginable happened right outside their door.
“It’s amazing to be able to watch that and to see that, it’s a good thing in this day, you know,” Shanklin said.
Waukesha was already a tight-knit community, but Shanklin and Ballmann explained the people of Waukesha have grown even closer, and stronger, in the face of tragedy.