In the weeks since July 4, when flash floods tore through a beloved Texas summer camp and took the lives of 27 children and counselors, a group of parents has been living in the kind of heartbreak most people can’t even imagine. Yet out of that grief has come something extraordinary: a successful push to change the law so no family has to experience what they now carry.

At Camp Mystic on the Guadalupe River, the storm came on suddenly. Water rose by several feet in just a few hours, sweeping through cabins, homes, and businesses along the banks. Among the victims were 8-year-olds Virginia Hollis and Abby Pohl. Their parents still carry the letters the girls sent home, full of stars, stickers, and the kind of joy only a child can capture. “Mommy, you were right. This is the best. I’m having so much fun,” Virginia wrote to her mother. Abby scrawled across her note: “I love you. See you in Austin.”

Those voices are what keep their families moving. On Wednesday night, the Texas Legislature passed the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act, a package of bills designed to overhaul the way youth camps operate in the state. The measures prohibit camps from building in flood plains, require detailed emergency preparedness plans every year, and mandate new safety training for both staff and campers. Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the bills into law.

For the parents, this has been about more than mourning. “When I dropped her off, I told her it was the safest place on earth,” said Lacy Hollis, Virginia’s mother. “I don’t want another parent to live with that kind of pain.” Others, like Ryan DeWitt, who lost his daughter Molly, put it more bluntly: “This wasn’t an accident. This was complacency, and it was 100% preventable.”

At the Capitol, the families showed up together, wearing silicone bracelets bearing each other’s daughters’ names, and pins marked with a cloud and halo reading “Heaven’s 27.” Some had never lobbied before. They learned quickly, aided by advocates who helped them find lawmakers willing to champion their cause. What struck many observers was that, even in the midst of two bitterly partisan special sessions, the bills drew broad, bipartisan support.

The Eastland family, which owns Camp Mystic and lost its patriarch Richard “Dick” Eastland as he tried to rescue children that night, released a statement backing the new law promising that the camp’s planning will “reflect the catastrophic 1,000-year weather event” that claimed so many lives.

Still, for parents like Cici Steward, whose daughter Cile has not yet been found, legislation doesn’t erase the waiting. “For that to be good news, that our child’s body be returned to us … is a reality and a nightmare,” she said.

Yet in their memories, there’s a glimpse of the joy their children knew before the waters rose. “They were all having the best time,” said Carrie Hanna, mother of Hadley. “You could see it in their faces, in their letters. That joy is what I hold onto.”