We have written about too many tragedies while documenting life in this community. We have been to, photographed and interviewed those impacted by deadly crashes, boating accidents, even murders, here in Barrington.

The past week has been as jarring and unsettling as anything we have seen.

Sowams School is hurting, and this entire community feels its pain. Everywhere we go in town, people are talking about the tragedies that have shaken this beloved, little school. People are whispering in coffee shops, hugging their neighbors, crying with each other.

When one teacher died just before the start of school, it was sad, tragic, painful. When a second died last week, it was stunning, staggering, impossible to comprehend.

Neither death is more significant than the other — but added together, they compound into something difficult to bear.

This is why Sowams School closed for the rest of the week. This is why grief counselors were sent to half the schools in the district. This is why therapy dogs greeted the students as they returned to school Tuesday morning.

This is also why the Sowams community held a vigil Wednesday night, to allow the town to show its love and support for this small school community as it confronts its tremendous grief.

Sowams School and its devoted faculty need a hug. They deserve to know how much we care.

– By Scott Pickering