Airport-Shooting Victims: Volunteers and Entrepreneurs, Vacation-Bound - New York Times
The “normal” expression on her face? A beaming smile, her church pastor said.
Father Fernando Molina-Restrepo, the pastor of the church, said there was a pall of sadness over his church’s 5 p.m. Mass on Saturday. The first pew on the left — Mrs. Woltering’s regular spot — remained empty.
He asked congregants to pray for the victims of the massacre, but to also to pray for people like the man accused of killing her, “people who are walking in darkness.”
“She was so joyful,” Father Molina-Restrepo said of Mrs. Woltering on Sunday. “Whenever you met her, she left you with this sense of joy and peace.”
She and her husband were married for 64 years and were setting out on a cruise to celebrate her husband’s 90th birthday, he said. She was known as the church “social butterfly” who attended every dance.
Mrs. Woltering was originally from Ipswich, north of London, but she lived in Georgia with her husband, who had served in the United States Air Force, The Independent newspaper reported. “Olga was so charming, calling everybody ‘Lovey’ or ‘Love’ in her unmistakable British accent,” the church said in a statement.
The couple had traveled to Florida to set out on a Caribbean cruise, their son, Tim Woltering, said in a telephone interview. Ralph Woltering was not injured, he said.
The Woltering family released a statement about Mrs. Woltering, describing her as a cornerstone of their extended family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She “rarely seemed to meet a stranger,” it said. “Rather, she had a smile or a hug for all.”
‘Tragic Loss’
Michael Oehme was one of the owners of Boundaryline Surveys, a land surveying business in Omaha. The company, in a recorded message, described the event as a “tragic loss” and said it had been inundated with expressions of sorrow and concern since last week’s shooting.
Mr. Oehme, 57, had traveled to Fort Lauderdale for a cruise with his wife, Kari, who sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder and was expected to recover, Mr. Oehme’s sister, Elizabeth Oehme-Miller, told The Associated Press.
“I still can’t believe it’s true,” Ms. Oehme-Miller said.
‘Generous With His Time’
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Associated Press
Terry Andres, 62, of Virginia Beach worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, a spokeswoman there, Terri Davis, said in a telephone interview. But Mr. Andres also had a history of donating his time to public service.
That was how Arthur Kohn, a Fire Department spokesman, described Mr. Andres’s contributions to the Oceana Volunteer Fire Department, where he volunteered alongside Virginia Beach firefighters as a support technician. The work is comforting as well as lifesaving: For six years beginning in 2004, Mr. Andres supplied fresh breathing tanks to the firefighters, as well as food, water and even shade on hot days from his support vehicle at the scene of fires, Mr. Kohn said in a telephone interview.
During that time, Mr. Andres stood out from other volunteers in one specific way. “He put forth a lot more time than some others did,” Mr. Kohn said. “He made himself available quite readily. He was very generous with his time. To me, that adds to the tragedy of this whole thing: That is the kind of people that we lose in acts of terrorism.”
Mr. Andres was on his way to embark on a cruise to celebrate his birthday, Ryan Kim, his daughter, told The Palm Beach Post. She said her mother, who was not injured, was waiting as her husband fetched a baggage cart, and then waved at her when he had one.
“Then everything happened,” Ms. Kim said. “And after all the ruckus ended, they didn’t realize that my dad wasn’t there right away.”
‘Raised an Amazing Family’
Shirley Timmons, 70, of Senecaville, Ohio, was the longtime owner of the Mayfair Stores, now-closed women’s clothing stores in Cambridge, Ohio, according to an Ohio radio station. She and her husband, Steve, who was also shot and was seriously injured, were weeks from their 51st wedding anniversary.
A family spokesman told the station that the couple was in Fort Lauderdale for a cruise vacation.
“Steve and Shirley raised an amazing family, three amazing girls,” the spokesman said. “Their family was everything to them.”
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