Parents recall Harper Moyski’s spark as hundreds gather for memorial of Annunciation shooting victim

When Harper Moyski’s preschool teacher first asked her name, she hardly looked up from her coloring before replying: “Badass.”

It was the kind of spark her family said defined her — a flash of humor and confidence that they, and hundreds of mourners at the Lake Harriet Band Shell on Sunday, remembered as her special light.

More than 1,000 mourners crowded the outdoor venue on the sunny day to memorialize 10-year-old Harper, who was one of two children killed in the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church.

Green and blue ribbons, representing the Catholic school’s colors, fluttered from the benches Sunday as families and neighbors filled the rows of seats. Many wore the same Annunciation T-shirts they had worn days earlier at the funeral of 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, who also died in the shooting.

The memorial was open to “all who loved” Harper and who hoped to bring “the kind of joy Harper brought into the world.”

Before the service began, a volunteer moved through the crowd, handing stuffed animals to children as soft music played from the speakers. At the front of the bandshell, poster-board collages showed Harper’s short life in snapshots — wide, laughing smiles; days at school; family adventures.

Among the mourners were Gov. Tim Walz, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, seated quietly among families in a crowd that stretched across the bandshell plaza. But the focus of the afternoon was on Harper herself, and the light she carried.

“Lord, our God, from whom human sadness is never hidden,” Hurley said. “You know the depths of our grief that we feel at the loss of Harper as we mourn her passing from this life. Comfort us with the knowledge that Harper lives now in your loving embrace.”

As his words lingered, a hushed “amen” rippled softly through the crowd.

Rabbi Jason Rodich, a close family friend, followed with a poem that urged attendees to stand together in love and rise above hate. He then led the crowd in song until voices filled the bandshell: “We are Harper and Fletcher’s people. We are singing, singing for our lives.”

Harper’s parents, Jackie Flavin and Mike Moyski, stepped to the microphone to thank the community for surrounding them with support.

“You’ve lifted us up during the hardest days of our lives,” Moyski said. “And we are so grateful.”

“How to be a light — that’s what Harper taught us every single day of her 10 brilliant years,” Flavin said. “She was only 10, and yet she taught us more than most people ever could.”

She smiled as she retold the story of Harper’s preschool quip, and laughter erupted through the rows.

“That was Harper,” Flavin said. “Confident, kind and completely her own kind of light.”

The audience rose in applause as Harper’s parents stepped down. From the stage came an operatic cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which carried over the lake.

The service closed not in silence but in celebration. The Moyski and Flavin families invited mourners to “celebrate the way Harper would want” — with joy.

The afternoon marked the second time in a week that Annunciation’s close-knit community had gathered to remember a child lost to the violence inside their church. More than 1,400 people attended Fletcher’s funeral at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church.

Classes had barely begun when the school year was interrupted by gunfire during the school’s Mass, killing Harper and Fletcher and injuring 21 others.

Harper’s obituary described her as “pure magic,” with “a sense of self far beyond her years.” She made her family laugh every day and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. She could hold her own in conversations about fairness or injustice, her parents wrote, always asking questions and expecting real answers.

The family had set a goal of visiting all 63 U.S. National Parks before Harper graduated high school, trips she often led “wide-eyed, curious and always up for the next trail.”

In their obituary, her parents and younger sister Quinn wrote that they will honor Harper by carrying her light forward — “chasing sunsets, asking bold questions, and loving with everything we’ve got.”