The wisdom of JESSICA GHAWI
She was at Toronto’s Eaton Centre when a gunman opened fire last month, a close call that convinced her to live life to the fullest. On Friday, she died in the mass shooting at a Colorado cinema, but friends and family say her message lives on
I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given. — JESSICA GHAWI IN A BLOG POST AFTER THE EATON CENTRE SHOOTING
Jessica Ghawi was made aware of how fleeting life can be following a fateful visit to Toronto’s Eaton Centre last month, where she witnessed the aftermath of a fatal gun battle.
“Every second of every day is a gift,” she wrote online after the killings on June 2. “After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.”
But in a bizarre and tragic coincidence, the 24-year-old aspiring sportscaster from Texas fell victim to a gas-mask-wearing gunman who went on a shooting spree in a darkened Colorado movie theatre packed for a midnight showing of the new Batman movie.
On Friday, her family worked to steer focus away from the suspected gunman, 24-year-old James Holmes, and onto the innocent victims whose lives were cut short.
Her boyfriend Jay Meloff, a Markham, Ont.-based professional hockey player, said despite her previous “close encounters” with death she was always happy, vivacious and “inspirational.”
“She knew life is a precious thing, that it’s fragile and can be gone at any time,” he said. “We saw that firsthand.”
Ms. Ghawi, who used the last name “Redfield” professionally, had just moved to Denver to break into the sports broadcasting business, doing post-game interviews for the Colorado Avalanche NHL team.
She’d moved into a new apartment in the suburb of Aurora and was thrilled to be having Mr. Meloff come stay with her at the end of next week, when he would arrive in the city to attend the Denver Cutthroats’ free agent camp.
“We just had such a bond right from the very first time we ever spoke to each other,” he said. “We were like the same person.”
They last spoke Thursday evening before she headed out to a midnight screening of Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises at the Century 16 cineplex in Aurora. Like everyone else she was excited as she waited for the premiere of the movie, teasing a friend via Twitter, “You aren’t seeing it tonight?... loser!”
But the packed theatre soon devolved into chaos as a gunman entered, deployed smoke bombs and began spraying bullets at moviegoers, loading and reloading as he went.
Let’s keep the attention on the wonderful things [about] the victims
Ms. Ghawi and her friend Brent were sitting in the middle of the theatre when they heard the hiss of the smoke bomb and saw people rising from their seats. Then, shots broke out and the two of them dropped to the floor for cover, Brent told Ms. Ghawi’s brother Jordan, who posted the account on his blog.
As Brent called 911, Ms. Ghawi screamed — her leg pierced by a round of bullets. As Brent applied pressure to the wound and tried to calm her down, he, too, was shot in the lower body. As he continued to give first aid, Brent noticed she was no longer screaming. That’s when he saw she’d been shot in the head. Seeing what would likely be his only chance to get out alive, Brent left the theatre and called Ms. Ghawi’s mom, her brother’s blog reads.
“Brent’s actions are nothing but heroic,” wrote Jordan, one of Ms. Ghawi’s two brothers.
Ms. Ghawi’s account of the Eaton Centre shooting on her blog was widely circulated Friday, its tone eerily prescient as she describes the “feeling” she had that made her change her mind about what to eat for dinner on June 2 while visiting her boyfriend in Toronto. It was a decision that took her away from the food court mere minutes before shots rang out.
“I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath,” she wrote. “I feel like I am overreacting about what I experienced. But I can’t help but be thankful for whatever caused me to make the choices that I made that day.”
Described by a friend as a “feisty Texas redhead,” Ms. Ghawi became the face of the Aurora shooting victims Friday, her name trending on Twitter — a medium she loved — and many friends and colleagues sharing memories and grief that such a promising young journalist was taken so soon.
Friend Adrian Dater, a sports writer for the Denver Post, said he’d just swapped messages with her over Twitter about possible internship programs earlier in the day Thursday.
“I’m in total disbelief,” he said in an email to the Post Friday. “She was a very smart, funny and ambitious person who wanted to make a go of it in the sports journalism business. It’s a tragedy.”
Friend Jesse Spector, the national NHL writer for Sporting News, exchanged tweets with Ms. Ghawi as she sat in the theatre. “It was pure silliness, sharply sarcastic and made me smile,” he wrote in a blog post Friday. “Only now, her shout of ‘ MOVIE DOESN’T START FOR 20 MINUTES’ is just haunting.”
Condolences came Friday from the You Can Play Project, an organization founded by the son of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke to raise awareness about LGBT issues in hockey. She had just started there as an intern.
“Our staff is despondent today over the loss of our intern Jessica Redfield,” the organization tweeted. “We will miss her intelligence, kindness, and work ethic greatly.”
On Friday, Ms. Ghawi’s mother called the Meloffs with the news.
“We’re just kind of in shock, to be honest,” said Mr. Meloff ’s mother, Barb. “Jess’s mom had told Jay this morning ... and said ‘Let’s keep the attention on the wonderful things [about] the victims; let’s keep the attention away from where the attention normally goes.”
Describing Ms. Ghawi as an “absolute hockey and sport factoid machine,” the young woman couldn’t have been a better fit for her son.
“A lot of young girls would not want [their boyfriends] spending time at the rink or training at the gym, but she really pushed Jay,” Ms. Meloff said. “She had the love of sports — she had the direction and the love of her future and she wanted him to have his goal as well.”
Mr. Meloff, who played for the Danbury Whalers in Connecticut last season, isn’t sure now whether he wants to stick with plans to go to Colorado for training camp.
“I love that place, but the best part about it was that she was there,” he said. “I know she’d want me to keep going, so I have to.”