LEWISTON — On the night of the mass shooting in 2023, David Greenleaf was at Just-In-Time Recreation with his wife when the deadly rampage began there.

Mention to Greenleaf that two years have gone by since that terrible night and he gets a little bit wistful.

“It feels like it happened yesterday,” Greenleaf said. “But at the same time, it’s gone by really fast. It’s hard to explain.”

And yet no explanation was necessary. Those who huddled next to Greenleaf at the end of the Longley Bridge on Friday night seemed to understand completely.

The event at the Lewiston end of the bridge was meant to memorialize the 18 people lost in the two shooting rampages and to support those who survived.

Even before the 4 p.m. start of the event, the crowds were thick and getting thicker by the minute. Yet no matter how big the crowd got, it still seemed like everyone there had a personal connection to the tragedy of Oct. 25, 2023.

“I have friends who were at Schemengees (Bar & Grille) that night,” said Kathleen Metayer, referring to the other shooting location. As she stood facing the Longley Bridge and nodding at those who drove by beeping their horns, she added, “One of them got hurt and the other was outside and now has bad survivor guilt. I’m here for them.”

Darlene Dennison, originally from Lewiston but now living in Tampa, Florida, came back to Maine to be with her people as the anniversary of the grim night drew near.

“It was definitely time to come back,” Dennison said, “to see friends and family and to remember the people we lost in this.”

On the night of Oct. 25, 2023, Dennison was at work in Tampa when colleagues came in to tell her the news.

“I still had a lot of school friends up here and some of them are the ones that were injured,” she said. “I had that kind of guilt feeling, not being able to do anything.”

A woman named Cynthia, holding a hand-drawn “Lewiston Strong” sign up high, understood Dennison’s feelings entirely.

On the night of the shootings, Cynthia was gone on a rare road trip away from Lewiston-Auburn to watch a field hockey game up in Bangor.

When the news broke about the horrors in Lewiston that night, Cynthia was alerted by a nephew.

“He said, ‘Aunt Cindy, I think you better come downstairs. There’s been an awful event in Lewiston,'” she recalled. “My brother wouldn’t let me drive back home. He wouldn’t let me drive back the next day, either.”

At that point, law enforcement was scouring the region in search of the shooter.

When she did return to Lewiston two days later, what she found would stick with her.

“I drove up and looked around and there was nobody on the street,” Cynthia said. “It was a Friday night but nobody was out. It was a ghost town.”

As it happens, Cynthia lives just a mile from Just-in-Time Recreation. Although it still bothers her that she was away on the night when Lewiston was so badly wounded, there’s a part of her that feels like it might have been for the best.

“In a way, I’m glad I was out of town that night,” she said, as passing traffic honked around her. “Being so close, the screaming of the ambulances and the fire trucks and the police cars would have caused me trauma.”

The crowds next to Veteran’s Memorial Park grew larger and larger Friday night as the commuter hour came along. Men, women and kids stood on both sides of the Longley Bridge, holding signs declaring that “Together we remember,” or bearing the names of the 18 who died in the shooting rampage.

“Lewiston Strong” T-shirts were everywhere and the cacophony of supportive honks from passing motorists was near constant.

The memorial event was meant to cover a full day leading up to the true anniversary of the shootings on Saturday. Organizers handed out candles and bracelets, signs and remembrance bags.

The event was helped along by the Lewiston Resilience Fund and the Maine Resilience Center, both founded in response to the shootings two years ago.

The goal of the event was simple.

“We just want people to be able to remember to be in the community with others who are remembering,” said Shanna Cox, president and CEO of the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

Gov. Janet Mills, meanwhile, ordered that the U.S. and Maine flags be lowered to half-staff statewide from sunrise until sunset on Saturday.

“As we mourn and pay tribute to those we lost two years ago, I hope all Maine people will support the victims’ loved ones and all those who were injured by showing the love that we have in our hearts for each other,” Mills said in a news release. “Although nothing can lessen their loss, we grieve with the families of the victims and the survivors of the Lewiston tragedy so that no one feels alone.”

Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline said that while the community turns out to support both the survivors and the fallen from that dreadful night two years ago, events like this one are also about celebrating the community’s ability to bounce back from the tragedy.

“In the face of violence and grief, our community responded with solidarity and support, from brave first responders to kind neighbors helping one another,” Sheline wrote in a prepared statement.

“This same spirit of care guides our ongoing healing, which is not about moving on, but about coming together to rebuild our sense of safety. By leaning on our collective love for Lewiston, we will build a safer, more connected, and resilient future.”