Irma Acosta's life had been torn into two distinct pieces — the sunny times that came before a gunman walked into the Seal Beach salon where she worked and the emotionally hollowed-out days that came in its wake.

But one day in November, about six weeks after the murderous rampage that left workers and customers dead, Acosta got a phone call that opened a path for putting those pieces together.

It was Sandi Fannin, who owned Salon Meritage with her husband, Randy. He had been one of the eight people killed that fall afternoon.

Would Acosta be willing to reopen the salon?

Rarely impulsive, Acosta immediately knew her answer.

"I just said yes," she said.

As the tight-knit community holds vigils, and churches open their doors to remember the victims a year after the darkest day in the little beach town's history, some of the survivors are trying to write a new ending to a story shaped by tragedy.

The salon will reopen.

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