Along with the Nashville community, people outside of Tennessee are grieving Cynthia Peak, 61, who was killed on Monday during a shooting at The Covenant School.
Peak, whom police believe to have been a substitute teacher at the school, is from Leesville, Louisiana, where childhood friends are remembering her.
Louisiana state Rep. Charles Anthony Owen said he has known Peak his whole life.
"She and my sister were the closest of friends growing up and it seems like Cindy was around for all of my childhood," he said Tuesday in a Facebook post. "She and Mae Ann had birthdays one day apart and her family lived across the street from us for a period of time. Cindy and Mae were always together."
Owen said in the Facebook post that when his sister Mae died, Peak was one of the first faces he recalled seeing.
"She was right here to grieve her old friend," he said.
"I grieve through tears as I write these words, but I know Cindy is in Heaven with her father, Dr. Bill Broyles, her mother, Nell Broyles, and her oldest sister, Diane. I also can take solace that she and my sister are once again holding hands and smiling," he added.