Christian Bale visits shooting victims in Aurora as families honor lost loved ones

Still grappling with the inexplicable tragedy at a Colorado movie theater last week, families of the massacre victims must now embark on the heavy task of laying their loved ones to rest.

On Wednesday, a memorial service will take place for 51-year-old Gordon Cowden, who took his two teenage children to see a midnight premiere of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises." Cowden's children survived.

Nine miles away, visitation will take place for Micayla Medek, a 23-year-old woman who was working toward her college degree.

Actor Christian Bale, star of "The Dark Knight Rises," surprised residents in Aurora on Tuesday when he visited a memorial for the victims and met with survivors of the shooting spree, CNN affiliate KDVR reported.

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One of the victims, Carey Rottman, posted a picture of Bale visiting him in his hospital room on Facebook.

"Wow!!! Thank you so much for the visit Christian!! What a great guy! Still in shock!" Rottman wrote, according to KDVR.

Amid the tragedy, other survivors also had reasons to celebrate.

Petra Anderson suffered four shotgun wounds, including one in her head. But thanks in part to a brain abnormality, she survived, her pastor said.

"The doctor explains that Petra's brain has had from birth a small 'defect' in it. It is a tiny channel of fluid running through her skull, like a tiny vein through marble, or a small hole in an oak board, winding from front to rear," Brad Strait of Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in Englewood, Colorado, wrote on his blog.