LEWISTON – Exactly one year before the mass shooting that claimed 18 lives in Lewiston, a community leader from Auburn greeted family at an airport in Ethiopia.

Fowsia Musse in the office of Maine Community Integration in Lewiston last year. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Soon after, a gunman opened fire in an apparent assassination attempt on Fowsia Musse’s sister, a legislator in the region.

Shot several times herself, the executive director of Maine Community Integration watched her sister fall dead. Musse’s son suffered minor injuries as well.

Musse nearly died, but ultimately came home in a wheelchair to continue her work.

The mass shooting last October, 365 days after the gunfire in Kenya, “became a focal point of heartache” for her, she said.

“Numbness enveloped me as I relived the trauma, struggling to find solace in tears that refused to come,” she said.

But “through these harrowing experiences,” she said, “I have come to understand that grief knows no boundaries. It transcends distance and identity, connecting us through our silent sorrow and the invisible wounds we bear.”

“Yet from the depths of this unseen pain emerges a resilience that is boundless,” Musse said, a strength that “empowers us to confront the darkness of trauma and to emerge scarred but unbroken.”

“In the face of despair, we find unity in our shared struggles and collective grief,” she said.

“Despite our differences,” Musse said, “we are bound by our humanity, and our pain ignites a flame of solidarity that burns brightly.”

“Together, as Mainers, we stand steadfast and true, linked by our shared resilience and unwavering spirit,” she said.

“In the wake of tragedy, it is this unity that sustains us, guiding us forward with renewed hope and determination,” Musse said. “My healing journey continues, buoyed by the knowledge that we are not alone in our struggles.”