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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's Friday, which is when we hear from StoryCorps. Ten years ago today, a gunman killed 49 people at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando. Paul Henry was one of those people. His daughter, Alexia, was just 17 then, and she recently came to StoryCorps to remember her father.
ALEXIA HENRY: He was a pillar in our family. He was the rock. We just were always together. What you see in me, you see in him, and he was my best friend. You know, I never knew he went to the Pulse nightclub, but I kind of knew he was gay. He never told me, but I kind of had a feeling where I knew.
And my dad was a musician, and he would sing and play the piano at churches. One weekend, he was singing at a funeral, and I remember the lyrics he sung were, one day you'll look for me, and I'll be gone. And I just started bust out crying. I was just like, I never want to lose my dad.
And when I was in high school, going to prom, I didn't have a date. (Crying) And I really wasn't expecting him to show up, but he did. And he put the little flower on my wrist, and he went and took pictures with me. And he basically was my date to prom.
After he died, I used to always have nightmares that I was in the actual Pulse nightclub with my dad, and I would see him get shot and die. I didn't want to keep seeing that. Felt like I was being punished because I seen my dad's autopsy (crying), and he was shot 13 times (crying).
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HENRY: You know, life, it can be cut short. But he lived out loud. He loved out loud, and he died where he felt like hisself (ph).
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INSKEEP: Alexia Henry recalling her dad, Paul. He was killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting 10 years ago today. Her StoryCorps interview is at the Library of Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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