Brooks: Mourning Minnesotans lit candles for Melissa Hortman at a dark hour

There were no speeches because there are no words.

The crowd at Wednesday night’s memorial for Melissa and Mark Hortman stretched down the steps of the State Capitol and across the lawn. People hugged and cried. Volunteers distributed candles and water.

There were lots of dogs in the crowd, including therapy dogs; the Hortmans’ golden retriever Gilbert was another victim of this week’s violence. Children lay on their bellies and kicked their feet in the air as they drew pictures of Gilbert and wrote messages to Mark and Melissa.

Thank you. We love you. Minnesota will always remember.

It was quiet. It’s never been so quiet at the Capitol.

The crowd grew and people watched the sun inch behind the dome. It would be at least an hour to sunset; the days are long this time of year.

But if anyone would have appreciated the challenge of organizing a candlelight vigil in Minnesota in June, it would have been Speaker Emerita Hortman, who was used to making do with what she had. A one-vote majority, or no majority at all.

Then came the first flickers, as the candles were lit and mourners moved closer together to pass the light from one person to the next until the whole crowd twinkled.

Musicians began to play. Strings. A drum circle. A brass band played “Amazing Grace.”

Tomorrow, or the next day, Minnesota may be ready to talk about Melissa and Mark. Everything they gave to this state. Everything political violence took away.

But Wednesday night, the crowd stood silent as the sun began to set on another sad day in one of the darkest weeks the Minnesota Legislature has ever known.

The wind picked up, rattling the tree leaves. People cupped their hands protectively around the flames.

The crowd was surrounded, though most didn’t know it, with living proof that the good that Melissa Hortman put out into the world isn’t going anywhere.

Young trees encircled the crowd like a hug. Melissa’s trees.

Hortman, an avid gardener and lover of growing things, selected many of the newest trees planted during the ongoing redesign of the Capitol Mall.

Snowdrift crabapples. Autumn blaze maples. There will be hundreds of new trees on the Mall eventually. She wanted even more.

State Rep. Brad Tabke, a landscape architect, worked closely with Hortman on the tree plans. His oldest is graduating from high school. Mark and Melissa were going to come to the graduation party.

On this night, he tried to focus on Melissa’s trees instead.

“The next time you’re there, on the fringes of the Capitol lawn, if you look closely, you’ll notice 40, 50 new trees that were all planted within the past year,” Tabke said.

“Those are Melissa Hortman trees.”