\u201cI would eat like three bowls of it every day. Apparently, it\u2019s an unhealthy amount,\u201d said Park. \u201cEverybody says this about their mom\u2019s cooking. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever have better kimchi jjigae anywhere else. Not even in Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Randy Park, 22, talks on the phone on Friday, March 19, 2021, following the death of his mother, Hyun Jung Grant, in a series of shootings at Asian spas in the Atlanta area. (Photo: Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)<\/span><\/p>\n Park said his mom was a teenager at heart. She\u00a0loved to hang out with friends,\u00a0go dancing, listen to Dutch DJ Ti\u00ebsto and sing karaoke. She was\u00a0a great singer, he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe dedicated her whole life to raising us and even then she found time to enjoy herself with her friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n To Park, Grant was more than just “mom.” She was one of his best friends.\u00a0He is his mother’s son, he said, from\u00a0his face to his personality, filled with kindness and understanding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI could say whatever word comes to my head for her, but it doesn\u2019t encompass a fraction of what she meant to us,\u201d he said. \u201cI can’t articulate or express in any way\u00a0describe what she was or what she meant to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Park learned of his mother\u2019s death\u00a0Tuesday shortly after the shooting. He grabbed his brother\u00a0and drove the 30 minutes to Gold Spa. He\u2019d never seen where she worked.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted to go there firsthand, see and hear everything regarding what happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Park said his mom shielded her sons for most of their lives from\u00a0where she worked. Grant initially told them she worked at a makeup parlor with friends before Park found out and confronted her. He said he didn\u2019t ask for details because he saw it as an invasion of privacy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Park said he told her, “I don\u2019t have any problem with what you\u2019re doing or what you would do for us as long as surely it\u2019s with good intentions. Then nothing else matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Hyung Jung Grant stands with her sons, Eric Park, center, and Randy Park, in this undated family photo. (Photo: Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/p>\n Hyung Jung Grant was one of eight killed, including Soon C. Park, Suncha Kim, Daoyou\u00a0Feng, Yong A. Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels and Xiaojie Tan.<\/p>\n Tan was a business owner and would have turned 50 this week. Yaun was a mother of a 13-year-old son and an 8-month-old daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n A GoFundMe for Park and his brother has raised more than $1.5 million to help cover\u00a0rent and other monthly bills. “Losing her has put a new lens on my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world,” he wrote in the post.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Park said he had a hard time expressing his gratitude for the help his family has received since the shootings. In his GoFundMe, he wrote,\u00a0“To put it bluntly, I can’t believe you guys exist. People I will probably never meet, hear, nor express my thanks to. This is simply a change in my life. I don’t even think I have a proper grasp on how much this is.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Park said his main focus now is to lay his mom to rest. Authorities have not yet released her body due to legal complications. Because of\u00a0the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, his aunt in Korea isn\u2019t able to come and help.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/03\/19\/USAT\/693b3ffc-8318-4d4a-a6ba-320e08694154-park_family.png\")
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