It looks like another beautiful day at the lake. There's nary a cloud in the sky, barely a ripple on the water this warm Friday.

At Bridgewater Plaza, construction continues next door, shoppers meander and teenagers make their way around the miniature golf course.

At Smith Mountain Coffee & Cafe at Westlake, Tabitha Robertson takes orders, fills coffee cups and chats with co-workers. The morning rush is over and customers wander in, grab some coffee and settle back with their newspaper.

It would seem to be a typical spring day at the lake -- quiet, but with a lingering anticipation that it won't be quiet for long.

The mad rush of Memorial Day visitors that will kick off the season is more than a month away, but you can feel it coming. It's a little too early in the season for boaters and a little too late to enjoy the hiatus from the hectic days of summer.

It's not just another day for Robertson. This day, she's fighting back tears on the morning shift as she serves her customers, many of them dressed in orange and maroon.

She can't stop thinking about a gunman's rampage that left 32 dead an hour's drive down Interstate 81 at Virginia Tech.

"This has hit so close to home," said Robertson, adding that many of the people who come into the shop are Tech graduates or connected with the university. "I want to cry right now. It's just devastating."

Jeff Francis of Scruggs stops by the shop for a cup of coffee. Francis, Virginia Tech Class of 1978, is sporting a maroon and orange ribbon he picked up at the Roanoke airport on his way home from a business trip.

A software consultant, Francis first heard about the lake when he was a horticulture student at Tech. He had planned to attend the spring football game Saturday. Those plans changed.

Francis is headed to Blacksburg anyway, but instead of cheering his fellow Hokies, he'll be grieving for them.

"I'm going to take some flowers up there, pay my respects.

"You would never have believed something like this could happen anywhere, much less at Tech," Francis said. "So many people here are connected; there are alumni and Hokie Club members all around here."

Vicki Martin of Bedford has no formal ties to Tech. On this day, however, the Nextel employee is wearing a Virginia Tech baseball cap.

Martin said her son, a serviceman stationed in Kosovo, Serbia, has been calling regularly for updates on what happened in Blacksburg.

"He's been watching it in the barracks with his buddies," she said. "I lived in L.A.; you might expect it to happen there, but not here."

Like many lake residents, Shirley Barr retired to the area from Northern Virginia.

She's wearing a Tech T-shirt and thinking about a grandson who attends UCLA.

Barr said she travels to Tech every year for a plant sale sponsored by the horticulture department. A member of her church, Bethlehem United Methodist, attends Tech. He's fine, but church members have been sending him cards for encouragement, she said.

On this day, observed as a national day of mourning for those who died at Tech, Brandon White is taking a break from his job at Bridgewater Plaza's Wake N Skate.

White, who said he's sitting out a semester from college, has several friends at Tech.

"One guy who goes there helped give wakeboard lessons here last summer," he said.

At The Willard Cos. in Hardy, orange and maroon ribbons have been handed out to all the employees.

"We wanted to show our Hokie spirit, so we all wore orange," said Chris Finley, who works for developer and businessman Ron Willard.

Finley said Willard's connections to Virginia Tech run deep. He attended the university, as have several of his children. Willard also serves on a fundraising board there, Finley said.

"This tragedy has touched everyone at the lake in some way or form," he said. "We're all very connected to the Tech community."

The links between the lake and Virginia Tech are vast.

Its shorelines are home to alumni, parents of Tech students and former teachers. Several people have told me they discovered the lake when they brought their children to Blacksburg to visit the university. Many students at Tech and lake residents hail from Northern Virginia.

More than a few lake residents can be classified as baby boomers or of retirement age. Their educations, families and life work are complete or close to it. The students at Virginia Tech are just beginning their life journeys -- journeys that have taken a tragic turn.

But the hope and support and togetherness the students and those connected with Virginia Tech have shown are an inspiration to all of us, young and old.

Finley said, "The lake will heal along with the Virginia Tech community."