Daughter of Mother Emanuel AME shooting victim holds book signing

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Monday will mark four years since the shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church.

Nine people were killed including the Rev. Sharon Risher’s mother, Ethel Lance. Risher has published a book on forgiveness in the aftermath of the tragedy and held a book signing at the Charleston County Library in downtown Charleston Saturday.

Risher says that when people read her book, “For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness After the Charleston Massacre,” she hopes that they see themselves in it and can relate.

She says it’s a memoir and shows readers her walk to get to forgiveness. Risher is a former hospital chaplain and trauma specialist who is now a national advocate for gun law reform.

When she was a child she would often come to the Charleston library.

“It’s just something that boggles my mind, but it lets you know through this book no matter what you go through in your life, the challenges and crises that you might go through, that there is hope, there is an opportunity for you to go through whatever it is you need to go through,” Risher says. “There is no set way of grieving, but if you’re a person of faith like I am, we know that our faith will get us through.”

The Charleston County library says they will have copies available to check out, they’re also looking into possibly having some for sale.

At 70, Lance was the second-oldest victim of the church shooting that also killed eight other parishioners, including the church’s main pastor, State Sen. and the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

A mother, and grandmother, Lance also served the church as a sexton and was a longtime member.

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