Hyun Jung Grant was one of eight people are dead by a man who attacked a series of spas in the Atlanta area on Tuesday. She was also a single mother of two boys now picking up the pieces.
Randy Park, her eldest son, says he now has the responsibility to plan his mother’s funeral and look after his younger brother. The 22-year-old started a $ 20,000 GoFundMe page for rent, food, bills and other expenses, and in the two days since the fundraiser, it has raised more than $ 2.4 million .
“Honestly, I have no time to grieve,” he wrote on the fundraising website. “It’s just my brother and I in the United States. The rest of my family is in South Korea and can’t come.”
Grant was among six Asian women shot dead in the attack on Tuesday. Officials said the suspect claimed the shooting incident was not racially motivated and viewed the spas as a temptation he wanted to eliminate.
The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, is charged with eight counts of murder. The shooting was not ruled out as a hate crime.
The other victims are Delaina Ashley Yaun, Yong Ae Yue, Suncha Kim, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon Chung Park and Paul Andre Michels.
Park said his mother was not only one of his best friends, but also ‘the strongest influence on who we are today’.
“Losing her has put a new lens on my eye on the amount of hatred that exists in our world. As much as I want to grieve and process the reality that she’s gone, I have a younger brother whom I must resolve care because of this tragedy, “he said.” … I will have to find out the life situation for my brother and I for the next few months, possibly years. ”
In an interview with the Associated Press, Park said his mother has always found a way to enjoy life, even though she works ‘almost every day’.
“She loved me and my brother enough to work for us, to dedicate her entire life,” he told the Associated Press. “That’s enough.”
Park told GoFundMe that his mother had the highest priority to get rest, but that he could not access her body due to physical problems. He told the Associated Press that although his mother’s name Grant was legal, the name came from a marriage a long time ago, and he is now struggling to find paperwork showing that he is the real next of kin.
He said he needed to find out the details of this situation, he said, while he had two weeks to find a new, cheaper place for him and his brother.
On Saturday afternoon, Park’s fundraiser was shared more than 64,000 times, with donations from more than 62,000 people.
“I do not know how any word I write here will ever convey how grateful and blessed I am to receive so much support,” he wrote as an update on the GoFundMe page. “… And to those among you who have donated any amount of money. To put it bluntly, I can not believe you exist. People for whom I will probably never meet my gratitude, hear it or it will do not resign. “
Park said he asked friends to help him compile his initial description of fundraising, but that his thanks were “my words uncut and unkempt.”
“I will live the rest of my days gratefully for what essentially gave my family a second chance,” he said. “I can not help feeling selfish for all the attention it has received … It’s not even a fragment of how I feel. My mother can rest assured because I have the support of the world with me. “