Orange ribbons for a passionate dancer
Orange ribbons were everywhere on Sunday: They were worn as bracelets, as hair accessories, and pinned to dresses and jackets in a standing room crowd of hundreds of people who grieved.
Orange was Jaime Taylor favorite color.
The 14-year-old student was killed Wednesday in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Shot in the back, Guttenberg was one of 17 students and teachers who died. Her older brother ran for his life from the school and survived.
Hundreds sobbed as Guttenberg was remembered as a friendly teen who loved to talk, a passionate dancer, a dog lover, and a volunteer who had her life figured out: She wanted to be married at 25, become a mother, and work as an occupational therapist.
“How do we keep her memory alive?” asked Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan of Temple Beth Chai. “We’re going to fight for causes to make a difference ... What comes out of this will be a blessing for Jaime, in her memory.”
The Guttenberg family was already mired in tragedy. Her uncle, Dr. Michael Guttenberg, who was assigned to the World Trade Center site on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the United States and worked in the debris from the towers afterward, died of pancreatic cancer linked to airborne toxins at Ground Zero in October.
Now, Jaime’s death on Valentine’s Day is an unspeakable “gnawing pain,” her mother said.
“I have a pain in my heart that is unbearable,” said Jennifer Guttenberg. She wanted her daughter remembered as sassy — with beautiful dancing legs. Guttenberg’s
“You are the best daughter in the world and you will always be my Valentine,” she said.
When students finally return to school, seeing the empty desk “will be one of the worst days of my life,” said teacher Mitchell Albert.
He said Guttenberg told him a joke before the shooting: “Why don’t people play poker in the jungle? There are too many cheetahs.”
Her father, Fred Guttenberg, said her death has spurred him to become an activist. “I was never a voice in gun violence,” he said. “I have been triggered. I will be relentless. This will be my life going forward. We will win. We will be able to safely send our kids to school. This could have been your kid.”
He railed against President Donald Trump for tweeting about the murders while blasting the FBI’s Russian investigation.
“Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”
“You do not have my permission to pull my daughter into the Russia probe,” Guttenberg bellowed. “You do have my permission to join me in my fight for public safety.”
The crowd applauded jumped to their feet.
Hours later, Jaime Guttenberg was laid into the ground at a Jewish cemetery in North Lauderdale. But the memory of Jaime Guttenberg is only beginning, her family vowed.
lhuriash@sunsentinel.com, 954-572-2008 or Twitter @LisaHuriash and