Ruth Elizabeth Whitfield, the 86-year-old mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield, had stopped into Tops supermarket to pick up a few things on her way home Saturday afternoon when the gunman took her life.
She had spent the earlier part of the day at Highpointe on Michigan Avenue, the Buffalo nursing home where she went almost every day to visit her husband, Garnell Sr., who had been a resident there for eight years.
He had worked extra jobs so that she could stay home and take care of their four children. Now she was providing that care for him.
“She brought him clean clothes, clipped his nails, shaved him, cut his hair. She did everything,” her son told The Buffalo News as he kept vigil Saturday night outside the supermarket.
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When she didn’t answer her phone Saturday afternoon, her son checked her house, then went to the store and saw her car parked there.
Ruth Whitfield, the grandmother of eight, was a longtime parishioner at Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church and sang in the choir.
“She was a blessing to all of us,” her son said. “She loved God and taught us to do the right thing.”
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