Sandy Hook mom sent this message to Orlando victims

Nelba Marquez-Greene knows the “horror of waiting to hear” if a family member has survived a mass shooting.

Her daughter was one of the 20 children killed in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012.

Marquez-Greene said when she found out that 49 people were gunned down at a nightclub in Orlando on Sunday, she began to relive “being one of the family members in wait.” So she wrote an open letter to those affected and posted it on her 6-year-old daughter Ana’s Facebook remembrance page. 

"I am sorry that our tragedy here in Sandy Hook wasn't enough to save your loved ones,” Marquez-Greene wrote. “I tried, and I won't stop trying."

Marquez-Greene said she hopes this latest tragedy will spur action on gun control.

“I am waiting for the church to be as outraged about gun violence as much as we seem to be about who pees where in a Target bathroom,” Marquez-Greene wrote.

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She noted that for those who lost loved ones in the shooting, a tough road lies ahead, and life will never be the same. But their family members will never be forgotten.

“I don't know what to tell my son,” Marquez-Greene said. “But know I will commit to learning about each and every one of your loved ones. And we will commit as a family to learning about their lives and the legacies you build in their memory.”

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Marquez-Greene encouraged people to donate money to aid victims' families but to be vigilant in checking that the money actually gets to the intended recipients.

"America's mass shootings should not be the United Way's pay day or a specific town's funding source to build a senior center," she wrote. "Millions were poured into Sandy Hook. Very little actually reached us. And victims of gun violence will have a lifetime of need."

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