(AP Photo / AMY SANCETTA) Students embrace during a memorial service Tuesday at Worsham Stadium on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. The school held a service for those slain by a gunman on Monday. It was the wind and the grace of God that kept Gaffney's Adrienne Edwards from returning to Virginia Tech on Sunday evening.

The daughter of Collis and Gwendolyn Edwards, Adrienne visited her brother in Clemson this past weekend. High winds on Sunday caused her to decide to delay her return trip to Blacksburg, Va.

Edwards woke up Monday morning expecting to make the journey to Virginia Tech, but she was alerted to the shootings by e-mail. By the time the day was over, she and the rest of the country learned that 33 students died in the largest fatal shooting attack in the country's history. Included in that number was the gunman, 23-year-old English major Cho Seung-Hui, who committed suicide as police closed in.

"I turned on the news and saw everything that was happening," she said. "I've been just crying off and on. My heart is broken just thinking about all the people there. I still can't believe that's my school.

"I ask everyone to pray and to keep us in their prayers. This is really a horrible time - I can't wrap my mind around how anything like this can happen." - ADRIENNE EDWARDS "I teach an undergraduate course to about 70 students," she continued. "I've sent a mass e-mail to my class asking them to let me know they weren't hurt. I've heard back from about half. I am waiting to hear the list of names (of deceased) when Virginia Tech releases them."

Edwards teaches the introductory human development course as part of her doctorate studies in human development, with an emphasis in child and adolescent development.

She received her bachelor's

degree from Clemson University and her master's from Winthrop University.

With classes cancelled, she has decided to spend the week working from home, as have many of her students and classmates. She will return to Virginia Tech next week.

"I would have never imagined anything like this happening," she said. "A lot of times I have to be on campus at night and I have felt really safe and comfortable. Even though it's such a large campus I've never felt unsafe, never felt I was in a threatening situation.

"I ask everyone to pray and to keep us in their prayers. This is really a horrible time - I can't wrap my mind around how anything like this can happen. I'm deeply saddened. I hope the community prays for us and we can come together and come through this."

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)