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Customer Recalls Tralona Bartkowiak's Joy & Love For All

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - A woman who shopped at a store belonging to one of the King Soopers shooting victims says she felt like family. Janel Possiel remembers having touching conversations with Tralona Bartkowiak.

Tralona Bartkowiak (facebook)
Tralona Bartkowiak (credit: Facebook)

Bartkowiak, known as Lonna to many, received an outpouring of love from across the Denver metro area. Bartkowiak owned Umba Love in downtown Boulder.

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(credit: CBS)

Possiel says felt comfortable talking to her.

"We started to talk about just the challenges that COVID had brought up and she said, you know, 'Challenges, challenges. You know, I just have learned so much more about how community is so important, how love is everywhere, and you know I just feel so honored that I have the ability to support so many amazing artists.' And, we just kept talking and she kept bringing the conversation to the joy and the love that she was learning about, and as we were leaving, as I was leaving, she just smiled and that big smile that I know, it wasn't just, to me it's to every person that she talks to, and she just said, 'Isn't this life just so precious?'" Possiel said.

She says she and Lonna joked they wished they could hug each other goodbye, but they believed they could soon once they were vaccinated.

 

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