The deaths the city endured at the Covenant School are unbearable, and the six beautiful humans who lost their lives must never be forgotten.

Students Evelyn Dickhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney deserved a better fate, as did teacher Cynthia Peak, Head of School Katherine Koonce and the gleeful Mike Hill. It seems everyone throughout the community knew someone who knew someone who had a relationship with one of those heroes, and they were beloved by all who were graced with their presence.

As we mourn, there are no degrees of separation. All of the lives that were torn from our city are woven into our souls, where they will dwell forever. They were the people who made Nashville great, each in their own, innocent way. The city will be better because of their unwitting, unnecessary sacrifice.

It is unimaginable that it could happen to someone as dedicated and as brave as the adults and as pure and naïve as the students. But it happened, and the question of “why?” grows within us like a cancer. It can consume the mind.

Those who survived the ambush can be grateful to Metro Police officers Rex Englebert and Michael Collazo, whose courageous and heroic actions, along with the teachers who implemented the lockdown, saved innumerable lives.

Godspeed little ones.

Sale of the Week

160 2nd Ave S #3401

In the days before Tony Giarratana reinvented urban living with his developments at the Viridian, then the Encore and his reworking of the Bennie Dillon Building, the Nashville market was divided into two lots, those who felt urban living was going to happen and those who never thought it had a chance.

Pre-Viridian, with its closings happening in late 2006 and early 2007, there were only some 630 residents living in downtown Nashville. There are now 15,000 people living downtown, the Nashville Downtown Partnership reports, with another 7,400 residential units set to be delivered by 2024.

Now many of the skeptics either live downtown or own a condo as a peid-a-terre, a term that had until recently escaped the vocabulary of most Nashvillians. Of course, a peid-a-terre is defined as “a small living unit often located in a large city and not used as an individual’s primary residence,” that according to Wikipedia.

The fact that the Nashville real estate hardscape now houses pied-a-terres has implications that Nashville is, in fact, a large city.

In some corners of the city, there are those that feel the downtown market is oversold and will soon crash, yet the data continues to prove them wrong, just as it has lo these 17 years since the Viridian began closing.

The Four Seasons development is living proof, and the resales have proven to be good investments, with the recent sale of unit 3401 as a case in point.

The 2,172-square-foot condominium was purchased for $3,406,900 in December. For the square footies among you, that equates to $1,568 per square foot.

“I’d hate to be in his shoes when he tries to sell it,” some might have said. Now they can look on in envy.

The original list price of $4.25 million was a bit high, but it did sell for $1,796 per square foot at $3.9 million. The unit has two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a half bathroom, a living room, a dining room and an additional room.

As for parking, the listing agent Sydney McCann noted that there is “access to valet two cars,” not two designated spaces, not a private garage, but access to valet.

For the record, Sydney McCann knows her way around a condominium, be it midtown or downtown, participating in as many transactions as anyone around.

No. 3401 features Miele appliances, a free-standing soaking tub – known as the trending tub – and is a “stunning corner Estate home in Nashville’s most exclusive high-rise community, The Four Seasons Private Residences,” McCann says, adding the Four Season’s condos provides owners a 5-star hotel lifestyle with access to all hotel amenities.

Franklin Pargh of Compass RE was the broker representing the buyer, who will no doubt pocket a few coins during ownership.

To borrow from a Steve Martin joke: Do you know have to make a half million dollars in real estate? Start with $3.4 million. In this case, the seller grossed $493,100 in four months.

Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty, LLC and can be reached at [email protected].