10 july/august 2019
Reader’s Digest Everyday Heroes
backyard. On February 15, 2019, he was
in his workshop when he heard sirens
scream past his window. He looked out
to see dozens of first responders rac-
ing down the street. Later that day, he
learned that a disgruntled ex-employee
had walked into the Henry Pratt manu-
facturing plant in Aurora, Illinois—just
15 minutes from where Zanis lives—
and killed five former coworkers. Zanis
found himself with the same sicken-
ing reaction he’d
witnessed in
so many towns
around the coun-
try: How could it
happen?
“This is home,”
he told the Chi-
cago Tribune.
“It was not sup-
posed to happen
here.”
And yet it did.
Soon, his phone
began to ring: When would he set up
his crosses? Zanis worked through
the night, building five monuments
to the deceased. Each was four feet
tall, weighed about 30 pounds, and
featured the victim’s name and photo
and a big red heart. “My simple mes-
sage is just that heart on the cross,”
he told CNN. “Love your brother, love
your neighbor. Don’t judge them. Life
isn’t that complicated. Hate and re-
venge is.”
Zanis loaded the crosses carefully
into the back of his white pickup anddrove to the plant. He already knew
where he’d place them: on the sidewalk
out front, next to a chain-link fence. As
he always does, he arrived quietly and
left without a word. His work was done.
Zanis understands more than most
how the families feel. He began build-
ing crosses to honor his father-in-law,
who was murdered in 1996. Tragedy
struck him again in 2018, when he
buried his 37-year-old daughter, who
died of a drug
overdose. A few
weeks after her
death, he was
in Parkland,
Florida, with the
17 crosses and
stars he’d made
for the victims at
Marjory Stone-
man Douglas
High School.
“When I went
to [Parkland], I
was a mess,” he told the Tribune. “But
I can’t allow myself to get consumed
in my own grief. I’m offering these
families hope. It helps me, and it helps
them. I know that for a fact because
when I leave there, they are smiling.”
Despite having seen and experi-
enced so much grief, Zanis insists he
has no agenda. He isn’t advocating
for one thing or another. “I’m not a
gun issue guy. I’m not a church guy,”
he told the New York Times. “There’s
no interest here other than helping
people remember.”In 2017, 638 Chicagoans were murdered.
Zanis honored each one on a vacant lot.