Family, friends remember 'silent victim' of mall shooting
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CLACKAMAS, Ore. – Family and friends will attend a memorial service Saturday for a woman who became mysteriously ill after the Clackamas Town Center shooting and died earlier this month.
Vanessa Ogden, 29, was working at the mall when a gunman opened fire on Tuesday, Dec. 11. She protected customers and coworkers by leading them to the back of the clothing store where she was a manager.
In the weeks following the shooting, she started to withdraw and stopped speaking. She became known as the shooting’s “silent victim.” An MRI revealed she had suffered 60 to 70 mini-strokes.
Despite her condition, Vanessa gave birth to a daughter, Georgia, on Dec. 27. Vanessa and her husband also have another daughter who is 16 months old.
Vanessa died on Feb. 15.
A memorial was planned for Saturday afternoon. Family and friends will also honor Vanessa by wearing Toms shoes, Vanessa’s favorite brand.
“Oh she would be so excited,” said Vanessa’s friend Shanna Davis. “She really loved the shoes.”
Davis and her husband planned to unite those who love and miss Vanessa by asking them to wear Toms to the memorial.
“Shanna and I have both posted on [Facebook] wear your Toms this week. Wear your Toms to the funeral,” said Geoff Davis.
“Vanessa would not want us to be sad or to all wear black and mourn,” Shanna Davis said. “I just know that she’s looking down on us and [saying] ‘Yeah, that’s right you all have Toms now.’”
Shanna and Geoff introduced Vanessa to her husband, Doug. Shanna said it was the intersection of philanthropy and fashion that turned Vanessa on to Toms shoes, which gives a pair of shoes to a child in need with every pair purchased.
Shanna and Geoff said word of their plan reached Toms, and someone with the company may be at Saturday's memorial. The company mailed a specially-designed pair of shoes for Vanessa's daughter Georgia to wear.
“She’s literally on our feet walking with us, traveling with us and seeing the things that we’re seeing from now on,” said Shanna Davis.
“It’s something that’s so horrible and so devastating,” said Geoff Davis. “It’s the good that comes out of it. To see the people come together for each other.
“It’s something that is completely unexpected, but it's what gets you through. It's what makes you think that there’s hope in this world.”
Some of you are just horrible people.  This is not the article on which to post your political issues. This was a wife, mother, daughter, sister, a pecious human life. If you have a problem with the way the media portrayed the story, then take it out on the media, not on a family who just lost someone. This story could have been about your family; just be thankful that it wasn't and stop heckling.
Let's apply basic logic to this situation. The comment thread has a divided course...one side is showing sympathy for the loss of a life, while the other side is showing disrespect for the deceased because they view her death as an instrumental piece of evidence in the gun control debate. Let's examine the latter...Can I ask a question? If you go on the internet, make inflammatory and highly cruel remarks, which does nothing but point out your lack of valuing life...why would I want you to have the right to own a gun. To me, and any sane person...you're the kind of people we don't want armed to begin with. Look, you can get defensive, call me names, but, this is simple elementary logic. You made fun of a woman who died, therefore, that is evidence of your lack of humanity. A person with a lack of humanity isn't someone you want carrying around an instrument that makes murder exponentially easier.
Unless you have followed the story closely, you would not get that her condition was a result of PTSD suffered as a result of the mall shooting. Â She was instrumental in saving many lives only to have hers cut short.
Ptsd is a mental problem it does not cause strokes, or can someone cite a case.
@DeAnna Anderson Yeah I can make stuff up to. For instance did you know in Portland alone 5000 cyclists a day are killed in head on collisions with trees. Any other facts you want to drop on us De?
The victim of something that had nothing to do with the mall shooting. Enough of this silent victim garbage.
Rest in Peace gentle soul
"A memorial was planned for Saturday afternoon. Family and friends will also honor Vanessa by wearing Toms shoes, Vanessaâs favorite brand."
It's funny what people remember when a loved one dies. Most often it is something that they use to cling to the memory of the loved one.
I remember odd things about my grandparents that would mean nothing to anyone else but to me they are important.
I am so sorry about your loss. She was taken too early and no one should outlive their children.
@RalphCramden Thank you for sharing your comments, they do make sense.
We each honor lost loved ones differently.
Still pushing the "silent victim" story.
Not reporting on HB3200? Â Afraid?
http://www.leg.state.or.us/13reg/measpdf/hb3200.dir/hb3200.intro.pdf
@Constitution Warrior yeah there going to be throwing all kinds of things out there to "Side Bar "HB 3200..Oh it seems that Google has been given special instructions .. When I searched for it, It would only show the health bill; They really do not wnat that bill in the open. time to face book that link.
Sad, but not related. Just report the news. Don't invent it.
She is not a victim, she had a health condition end of story.