Sandy Hook victims mourned for lives cut short
USA TODAY
Published 6:24 p.m. ET Dec.16, 2012 - Updated 1:01 a.m. ET Dec. 18, 2012

Emilie Parker, 6

Emilie Parker was a blonde blue-eyed first-grader, an artist who always toted around her crayons and paper. She was a big sister to two younger sisters who always turned to her for comfort.

In an emotional press conference, Emilie's father, Robert, described the last conversation he had with his eldest daughter. He was teaching her Portuguese, and she asked him how he was doing.

"She told me she loved me, and I walked out the door," he said. Robert Parker kept his composure as he spoke but became emotional as he described how his two younger girls always turned to Emilie when they needed comfort.

"She was the type of person who could light up a room," he said. "She is an incredible person and I'm so blessed to be her dad."

Parker said he didn't know how he and his wife would get through this tragedy.

He and his family moved to Newtown eight months ago when he accepted a job as a physician assistant in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Danbury hospital. He said he was at the hospital when he heard about the shooting from his wife. He said at first he thought it couldn't have been very serious, but as the day wore on, the enormity of it hit him, he said.

"I don't know how to get through this," he said.

A Facebook page created by the family shows Emilie at baseball games with her father and watching over her younger sisters. The family plans to return her remains to Utah, where they are originally from.