Robbie Parker’s six-year-old daughter Emilie was killed at Sandy Hook elementary school on 14 December 2012. Parker was the first parent to voice his grief in public after the massacre – a decision that led to a decade-long struggle against the rightwing provocateur Alex Jones, who propagated the lie that he was a “crisis actor” and the entire shooting was a hoax to justify gun restrictions. In 2022, Jones lost a series of defamation cases in Connecticut and Texas and was ordered to pay nearly $1.5bn in damages to the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. In that sense, Parker is a double survivor. Now, Parker has written a book, A Father’s Fight, in an effort to “express what I see as a void in the world because she’s not there any more”. In an interview with the Guardian, Parker remembers Emilie as an extrovert who was speaking before she grew teeth and recounts his journey with grief in the many years since her death. “Grief teaches you so much more than dealing with the loss of your loved one,” he reflects. “There’s this mutual level of respect between what it’s offered me and what I’ve learned from it. Opening yourself up to the entire process of grieving would be advice I wish I would have known.” Swipe to read more and follow the link in bio to see Parker’s full story. Photos on the first and last slide by Celeste Noche