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The proposal needed to be good, similar to a Hallmark film.
Brandy Escamilla had saved cash to buy a custom-made engagement ring: a pear-shaped diamond from a jeweler in downtown Los Angeles. She simply wanted the best time to suggest to her highschool sweetheart, Josilyn Ruiz.
“All over the place she went, she had the ring together with her till she was in a position to suggest,” stated her mom, Blanca Escamilla.
The chance got here in January 2022, up within the mountains of Banff in Alberta, Canada. In the course of a frozen lake, Brandy acquired on one knee and requested Josilyn to marry her.
“It got here out precisely the way in which she dreamed,” Escamilla stated.
Lower than a yr and a half later, there was a knock on the door of the Ruiz household residence in Walnut. Three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stood exterior. One requested about Josilyn.
“Don’t say one other phrase,” her mom, Anita Ruiz, responded. In her coronary heart, she already knew one thing horrible had occurred.
The deputies defined that a gunman had opened fireplace on a crowd at a music competition in Washington state. Brandy, 29, and Josilyn, 26, have been each killed.
They have been the definition of soulmates, stated Leilani Ruiz, Josilyn’s sister-in-law. “Their love was deep, unconditional and timeless.”
The pair met in highschool. Collectively, they graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s College, Los Angeles, in 2018 and later went on to work as nurses within the COVID-19 unit at Metropolis of Hope in Duarte.
“They labored extraordinarily onerous, however they performed onerous,” Anita Ruiz recalled. “It was very stunning to observe them journey, go to live shows, eat nice meals and mature collectively.”
After getting engaged, they moved to Seattle as journey nurses “to grow to be their very own individuals and dwell on their very own,” she stated. “They usually did it.”
They have been attending the Past Wonderland digital music competition on June 17 on the Gorge Amphitheatre, a usually idyllic venue close to the Columbia River, when a person began firing into the gang, officers in Washington state stated.
The following day, Father’s Day, a trio of sheriff’s deputies made their grim pilgrimage to the Ruiz household residence.
Blanca Escamilla and her husband, Eddie, have been at their grandson’s baseball recreation once they acquired a name from Ruiz. Police had been attempting to contact them at their residence in Norwalk.
“I simply went down on my knees and began screaming,” Escamilla stated.
Josilyn had an enormous coronary heart and at all times stood up for different individuals, in response to her mom. She loved taking part in sports activities: volleyball and a few softball.
In center faculty, Ruiz discovered a love letter by which Josilyn got here out to a different woman. Ruiz stated she was initially stunned; they have been a Catholic household.
Someday, at a soccer recreation, Josilyn informed her mother she was assembly somebody and was nervous.
“From then on, we knew about Brandy,” Ruiz stated.
She admits she was not very supportive of the connection at first.
“As soon as I acquired to know who Brandy was, and I got here to phrases with who my daughter is, and who we raised, I embraced it,” she stated. “Brandy was simply one other member of the family. We grew to like her.”
At Mount Saint Mary’s — a personal, Catholic college — Josilyn began a Homosexual-Straight Alliance membership. “She opened a door for different college students to talk out,” stated her father, John Ruiz.
“She lived life on her phrases, and he or she was going to carve out a means for her and Brandy to have an equal life like another couple,” Anita Ruiz stated. “She wished individuals to be accepting of others, to like and be open about love.”
Brandy was petite however feisty, Escamilla stated. She stood about 5 toes, 2 inches, “however fought like she was 6 foot 5.”
As an grownup, Brandy was her household’s home nurse, however Escamilla nonetheless remembers her because the little woman who would put on her excessive heels whereas she was at work.
Brandy cherished to play softball. “For the eight or 9 years that she performed it, our life together with her was within the softball fields,” stated her father, Eddie.
Someday, when he was about to go away for work, he noticed a then-unfamiliar woman pushing a motorcycle with a flat tire. She requested him if this was Brandy’s home.
Josilyn, who lived about 20 miles away, had walked many of the solution to come go to.
“They actually cherished one another,” Eddie Escamilla stated, laughing.
Blanca Escamilla stated she at all times knew her daughter was a lesbian, and waited patiently for her to really feel snug speaking about it. However Brandy was her father’s satisfaction and pleasure, and apprehensive he could be dissatisfied.
Brandy began crying when she got here out to her father. He informed her, “I needed you’ll have informed me this sooner so that you didn’t should undergo this ache.”
Three different individuals have been injured within the June 17 capturing. Officers have recognized the suspect as James M. Kelly, 26, an active-duty member of the U.S. Military primarily based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. He will probably be arraigned in Grant County Superior Court docket on July 5.
“The households of the victims are struggling intensely,” stated Ruiz household legal professional Kevin Boyle, who additionally represented victims of the 2017 mass capturing at a music competition in Las Vegas. “They aren’t litigious individuals, and they don’t seem to be after cash, however they do need to know why this occurred and the way it may be prevented sooner or later.”
Although they’re gone far too younger and much too quickly, Eddie Escamilla stated he thinks Brandy and Josilyn lived a full life.
“Although their lives have been lower quick, it appears they lived lengthy lives due to all of the touring and all of the meals they ate,” he stated. “I’m 53, and it appeared like Brandy lived greater than me.”
John Ruiz stated he remembered just lately calling his daughter and asking about their upcoming plans. They have been on their solution to a kickboxing fitness center. The following day he known as, she informed him that they’d purchased a kayak down the road.
“Our women knew what they wished out of life and of their relationship,” he stated. “They introduced out the most effective of us as mother and father and all of the individuals round them.”
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