Friends and family of Suncha Kim have spoken up for the first time since the murder of their beloved, commemorating her life and her love for America in an interview with The Washington Post. Kim was one of eight people, including six Asian-Americans, who were shot and killed by a white man in Atlanta last month. After dreaming of living in the U.S. her entire life, Kim finally made the move to Texas in 1980 at age 29, her family said. In her free time, she enjoyed taking Zumba classes, gardening, and dancing to a Justin Bieber playlist. “She always thought about other people first. She was always smiling. She was always happy,” said Agnes Choi, one of Kim’s friends from church.

Kim moved to Georgia a few years ago in search of a bigger Korean American community, and then got a job at Gold Spa, where she was killed. A year ago, Kim warned her family to “be careful” when they go out. “They’re angry at Oriental people,” she told them. She had been planning to celebrate Easter weekend with her family, and the day she was shot, she texted her daughter a picture of shoes she had bought. “This is for you and me,” the text reads. Her family asks that “the AAPI community not let our mothers and grandmothers, our ummunees and halmunees, die in vain.”