10 years after Columbine, Sanders' family remembers their 'hero'

LITTLETON — Cindy Thirouin remembers the fatherly advice.

Tiffany Strole remembers trips to the high school gym with her grandpa.

Mallory Sanders remembers the “worms and dirt” sandwiches.

All three remembered teacher Dave Sanders in the Columbine High School library Saturday afternoon, two days before the 10th anniversary of his murder. Sanders and 12 students were killed on April 20, 1999, by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who then killed themselves.

On a cold, wet day at the high school, media from around the world converged to talk to some of Sanders’ relatives, including Thirouin, Sanders’ stepdaughter; and Tiffany and Mallory, two of his granddaughters. News organizations from as far as away as Canada, Britain and Japan came to hear their stories. Several more of Sanders’ relatives attended the event, as did Dawn Anna and Bruce Beck, the mother and stepfather of victim Lauren Townsend.

It didn’t take long in a conversation about Sanders for a familiar thing to happen: First a recollection about him would cause a grin, and then a full-on smile.

“He was more of a dad to me than anyone else,” Thirouin said. “Besides my grandpa, he was the first man in my life I could trust. My hero.” 

Sanders was her stepfather for 10 years. She said Sanders was dating her mother when Thirouin was pregnant. “He accepted us with open arms,”  she said, and even drove her and the new baby home from the hospital.

Tiffany was 5 years old when the murders took place. This year, she’s a freshman at Columbine.

She said it was “weird at first … walking down those stairs that grandpa ran up. But then you get used to it. When you go down them, you think about the things that happened that day, and then when you finally get down those stairs, you’re like, ‘I made it through.’ “

Her mom said, “She knows what room grandpa died in. (But) she loves school. She’s never missed a day, and the teachers watch out for her.” She added that in her first year, Tiffany is getting straight A’s.

“She wants everybody to know it’s a good school and don’t be afraid to send your kids there,” Thirouin said.

Both Mallory and Tiffany said it took time for the news of their grandfather’s death to become real to them.

“It didn’t sink in till I was 6,” Tiffany said. “I used to cry every night.”

Mallory said it took her until she was 10 or 11 before she “could just think about the good parts. For a long time, I had some major grudges against the two who did it.”

But that passed. “There are a lot of good and happy things you can still think about … like who they were, and not how they died.” 

Her favorite memory? Those “worms and dirt” sandwiches, made by crushing gummy worms candy and Oreo cookies together. “It was good,” she said with a widening smile. “I was little. Why not? It was sugar.”

Tiffany remembers her grandfather playing “restaurant” with her. “We had this little kid table, and he’d be the waitress … and he’d make a sandwich with worms coming out of it.”

A candlelight vigil will be held Sunday at 7:30 at Clement Park, next to Columbine High School on South Pierce Street. Monday at 11 a.m., the group Colorado Ceasefire will hold a “Columbine Rededication” on the west steps of the Colorado Capitol. It will include a moment of silence, a reading of the victims’ names and a “lie-down,” in which 13 people will lie down to signify those killed, surrounded by 23 people, signifying those injured.

Monday at 5 p.m., a memorial service will be held at the amphitheater at Clement Park.

Tiffany said she’ll spend Monday watching news reports about the anniversary.

“It seems like it gets easier (to handle it)” as time goes on, she said. “The media calms down for a while. Between the 10- and 15-year (anniversaries), everybody just leaves it alone and we have nothing planned.”

For more:

Columbine: A True Crime Story (author Jeff Kass’ Web site)

Columbine Memorial Web site

Daniel Mauser Memorial Web site

Columbine memorial marks first year