It’s one thing to offer thoughts and prayers to remember those involved in tragedies. It’s another to channel all of the emotions attached and put pain to paper.

"On May 14, nothing I was expecting to happen occurred," said Mark Talley, the son of mass shooting victim Geraldine Talley, reading from his book, '5/14: The Day The Devil Came to Buffalo.' "At 2:25 p.m., five minutes before my shift was scheduled to end. Everyone around me instantly became glued to their cell phone simultaneously."

Mark Talley never thought he’d write a book or hold a press conference as one of the faces of a movement to fight racism and inequality, but here we are.

"I wasn't concerned about anyone in my family being in the vicinity of an active shooter because there were plenty of shootings in Buffalo over the past four years," he read on. "And they really never impacted anyone I knew or loved."

And almost a year later…

"The pain was, and still to this day, unbearable,” he said. “I find myself numb; numb to emotions because I know my body isn't strong enough to bear."

So he enlisted some help.

"I hear you're coming to Buffalo — that was the message that (Mark Talley) sent to me on LinkedIn," said Jacquie Abram, author. "I said, ‘yes, I am.’ ”

Abram has a pair of books directly tackling racism in corporate America – now more than just family ties her to the city of good neighbors.

"I literally froze as I'm staring at his message to me," she said. "’Yes,’ I said. ‘You are going to help them heal. And through your experiences, you are going to find that the more you talk about it and the more you release it into this book, you are going to heal because it's surprisingly therapeutic.’ "

Helping more that she originally intended…

"OK, let's do it. And I said, ‘let's’ as in ‘we?’’ "

Because Mark Talley never thought he’d write a book.

"You know, heavy is the head that wears the crown," said Talley. "Sometimes you don't choose the life, but the life chooses you."

One that will go past ‘knowing’ what happened on May 14, 2022.

"So it was very painful at times. There were times I couldn't survive the sadness in this," said Abram. "Because when you take on that kind of responsibility, you have to immerse yourself into their experience. And it was hard at times."

"A few minutes later, my relief arrived,” Talley read. “My shift finally ended and I couldn't wait to leave the hospital.”

"By the time you come out of his journey, you are no longer numb to the pain," added Abram, listening in. "And it makes you want to do more than just offer your thoughts and prayers the next time one happens."

"Although I wasn't looking forward to telling my mother the unfortunate news … I was definitely looking forward to seeing her,” said Talley. “If only I had known. Unfortunately, I would never be seeing her again."