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One year later:

The lessons of Columbine

On the eve of a return visit, Today's Katie Couric writes exclusively for USA WEEKEND about the moving experience of reporting on a community's grief -- and grieving with them.

s a veteran journalist of more than two decades, I have had the opportunity to meet and interview countless people -- from kings and queens, presidents and first ladies to renowned authors, brilliant scientists and celebrated actors. I sometimes marvel at the list myself. However, I can honestly say I was never as moved by those conversations as I was by an interview I did the morning of April 22, 1999.

I arrived in Littleton, Colo., on the evening of April 20. Just hours before, I had been enjoying an afternoon benefit theater performance at Lincoln Center in New York City and looking forward to an evening at home with my daughters. The phone call from the Today show came during the performance. There had been a massacre at a Colorado high school. Children had been killed. The situation is very bad. Students killing students. I needed to go to Denver on the next flight.

Sadly, I'm asked to report on a lot of terrible, tragic stories, on an almost weekly basis. This seemed particularly horrific. The brutality of the shootings, the setting, the senselessness. And as our show, and virtually every other major media outlet, descended on Littleton to cover what had happened, it became painfully clear that this was a story that would forever change not only this normal, quiet Colorado community, but the entire nation as well.

While there are countless things about my coverage of the Littleton tragedy that I will never forget, my interview with Michael Shoels and Craig Scott had the most profound effect on me -- as a journalist and as a human being. Michael Shoels' son, Isaiah, was shot in the face as he crouched under a table in the Columbine High School library. Craig Scott was one of the last people to see him alive. Craig's sister, Rachel, also was killed in the massacre. In an instant, as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold fired their guns, the lives of Michael Shoels and Craig Scott were forever intertwined.

During the interview, Craig recounted those horrifying moments in the library as he watched Isaiah Shoels -- an 18-year-old football player, small in stature but big in heart -- get shot point-blank by a classmate. Craig clearly remained in a state of shock. Isaiah's father listened to the kind of horror story no one -- least of all a parent -- should hear. But as he did, he reached out and held Craig Scott's hand, knowing full well what kind of pain and trauma this young man had experienced.

These were two people who suddenly found themselves, under the worst of circumstances, thrust into the media spotlight. They were not media-savvy. They had no experience being interviewed. They were completely unprepared.

Yet they were two of the most compelling people I've ever spoken with, compelling because of their raw honesty, despair and, yet, compassion. Compelling because of their simple, spontaneous eloquence, the kind of eloquence that comes only from expressing the most excruciating pain. Michael Shoels lost a son; Craig Scott, a sister. But somehow, on that cold Colorado morning last spring, while snow fell silently against the dark sky, they had found each other.

I learned a lot from these two people. I learned that even in the face of tremendous heartache, there can be comfort in sharing intensely personal stories. I have often wondered why and how people can appear on television talking about such tragedies.

But I have come to realize that whatever the reason for their appearance, it can be cathartic to perhaps know that so many people are grieving with them. That's what I was doing with Michael Shoels and Craig Scott that April morning as they haltingly told their story to me and millions of other Americans.

This week, I return to Columbine to mark the first anniversary of the shootings there. I will again sit down for an interview with Michael Shoels and Craig Scott. It will be in a different location this time -- Shoels cannot bring himself to return to Columbine High School. Craig is now a junior there.

A year later, I can only hope for healing. Understanding, I'm afraid, may never come.

Katie Couric will report live from Littleton, Colo., this week.