  | |
WEST VALLEY — Although Teresa Ellis' love of confections may have earned her the nickname "Sweets," it stuck because of her kind, loving personality.
During funeral services Friday, the 29-year-old Ellis was remembered by family and friends as a person who liked everyone and cared deeply for people, whether immediate family, employees or strangers on a plane. Through numerous anecdotes, her seemingly endless compassion resonated. Services were held in the LDS Apple Farms Ward meetinghouse.
"She cared for everyone," husband Nathan Ellis said. "It didn't matter what your background was, what you had been through, or your religion, race or anything. She taught me so much."
Ellis was one of five people killed during a random shooting rampage in Trolley Square Monday night. She was shot while shopping with friend Brad Frantz in Cabin Fever, a novelty and card shop. Frantz was also killed.
Nathan said the personality that inspired her to care for everyone would have also allowed her to forgive the shooter, Sulejman Talovic. In that spirit, he urged the almost 200 people in attendance to follow her example.
"I forgive the guy who shot and killed those people," he said. "It was a tragedy. We don't know what he was thinking, what his fears were, what his childhood was like. But we can all forgive, just as she would have forgiven."
Originally from Ashville, N.Y., Ellis moved to Salt Lake in 2000 to be closer to her future husband, Nathan. They married in 2001, although they have been separated in recent months.
During her funeral service, however, Nathan remembered the good times with Teresa. They met while playing softball at her family's house during his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
During that softball game, "we looked at each other and there was a sense of familiarity," he said.
There were her endearing moments of "half-asleep confusion," which led her once to call 911 because she dreamed about a plane crash in her backyard. Another time, it made her think that an alligator had saved a human on a television show they were watching together.
Through it all, however, there was her deeply caring personality. She admired her grandmother, who left her house to a foster care agency in her will, and she cried when she saw people laughing at a man with mental problems on a plane.
Her father-in-law, Randy, said that they recognized her capacity for love, especially for family, shortly after she married Nathan.
"Immediately, she started calling me Dad," he said. "I thought it was great when we had grandchildren, and I could name my in-laws. But she just started calling us Mom and Dad right away."
Her nickname was given to her after they discovered her love for candy, but her sister-in-law, Sarah Ellis, said that it defined her as a person.
"She made everyone feel special," Sarah said. "She always had a door open and allowed everyone in ... we loved our Sweets very much, and we miss her very much."
E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com