CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — For family, friends and the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, its not been an easy week.
Of the eight victims from last week's shooting, Greg Hynson knew three: Xioajie "Emily" Tan, Daoyou Feng and Paul Michels.
Hynson said he's known Tan, the owner of Young's Asian Massage Parlor, for six years. He said she'd help the former competitive weightlifter with massage therapy. But the greatest gift she gave him, he said, was her friendship.
"If I was in the area I'd swing by and say 'hey, how's it going?'" Hynson recounted.
"We'd sit around. If I was at a restaurant that her or the girls enjoyed, I'd say 'hey, I'm over here, want me to drive you over some food?'"
Even while grocery shopping at Costco, which he said Tan enjoyed doing, he would call and offer to pick up groceries.
He said its already been tough without her around.
"It's been hard," he explained. "I just can't really describe anything that's been more difficult."
He describes the 49-year-old mother of one as a beautiful, sweet, unselfish, giving person who loved her family and friends.
In her spa also worked 44-year-old Daoyou Feng. Not a lot is known about Feng, but Hynson said she was single, never married, had no children but her mother is still alive.
"She was warm, she was sweet ... she hadn't learned English yet but you could tell [by] her demeanor," he added.
He said those are qualities everyone who worked at Tan's spa had.
"The girls who worked for her were an extension of [Tan]," he said. "Her personality, her values ... I never met anybody who worked for her that was out of place. Everybody was there - it's like they fit there."
He said those who worked at the spa were all like family and treated those who walked in the door the same way - including Army veteran Paul Michels, who had recently started working at the spa as a handyman.
"He was a good guy," Hynson recalled. "He had a unique personality. He was funny but at the core of it all, he was a good person. He kind of - like myself - just watched out for [those working in the spa]."
On Wednesday was Michels' funeral. His brother, John, flew into Atlanta for the services on Wednesday.
"We would explore, we were adventurous ... overall, he was a good brother," said John, who was two years younger than Paul, though everyone called them twins. "Kind, considerate, loving. Good to hang around."
Hynson said he will miss going to the spa routinely to check in on the friends who quickly became his family.
"I already do [miss them]," he said. "It's someone I interacted with on a routine basis. Whether it was a text or I'm stopping by... it's going to be a definite void."