Highland Park man's 'Let's Talk' sign at a coffeeshop turns strangers into friends
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- In the chaos of Monday's deadly mass shooting in Highland Park, many parade goers found safety in small businesses downtown.
CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported Wednesday that in the days following the violence, those businesses are once again a safe space for people working through their trauma.
In Highland Park, it's not uncommon to see people stopping in the street giving each other a hug and creating a space to heal.
One man sat down at a café, all day, with an empty chair beside him with two words: "Let's talk."
"Strangers become, you know, friends and family when brought together by tragedy and this is now a community that is bound by tragedy. If nothing else, other than the acknowledgment of 'I am suffering' I am too," said Matt Berk. "We all are, even if we just sit together here in silence we're sharing something."
Berk is from Highland Park. He and his wife are raising their kids there and chose it because they wanted their kids to have a safe childhood.
When the shooting happened, he had just put his youngest down for a nap. Now he's trying to figure out a way to talk to them about it all.
He sat steps away from the shooting. He met new neighbors who just needed to talk. People stopped, just to share space and to savor their community.
"Everyone here knows what's going on. Everyone here wants to talk about the same thing. And it's just jumped right into really 'are you okay,'" Berk said.
He was there from 9:00 a.m. until the café closed. Almost a dozen people stopped by to chat.