ATLANTA — Apalachee High School math teacher Christina Irimie loved her Romanian heritage and was very dedicated to her roots, said her friend and pastor.
Nicolae Clempus met Irimie, one of four killed in a Wednesday shooting at the Barrow County high school, when he moved to the United States in 2001. Irimie had immigrated from Romania a few years earlier and was active in the expat community in Georgia, he said. She made him feel welcome.
The parish priest at Saint Mary Romanian Orthodox Church in Dacula said he quickly learned Irimie was someone “you know you can count on.” Saint Mary’s was one of two churches Irimie, 53, attended, he said.
Any time the church held an event or festival, Irimie was there volunteering — either cooking or serving food or dancing. Clempus said she loved to dance.
As a young person, Irimie was part of a traditional Romanian dance group from the Transylvania region. As she got older, she became a dance instructor and helped teach a children’s dance group.
Irimie didn’t have children but was always surrounded by kids, he said.
“She definitely had a gift to work with young people,” Clempus said.
Clempus said she had an infectious laugh.
“She was always very joyful, always happy,” he said. “If you hear somebody laughing, Christina was in the middle of it.”
Another friend, Silvia Pasch, said she got to know Irimie while volunteering with her at Saints Constantine and Helen Church in Lilburn. Pasch said Irimie was always smiling and had a big heart.
The church holds festivals every spring and fall to celebrate Romanian culture. This past spring, Pasch said she was in the kitchen chopping vegetables while Irimie was practicing with the children’s dance group. At one point, the dance lesson turned into a math lesson when a student said she was struggling with an algebra concept.
“She said, ‘this is not so difficult, you can do it,’” Pasch said. “Even me, I listened to what she said because I thought I might learn something.”
The next festival is in October, and Pasch said it will be hard without Irimie.
“I bet when we are cutting potatoes and vegetables we will talk about her,” she said.
Clempus said he’s texted with Irimie’s husband who is in shock. Most of their family still lives in Romania and are just learning about what happened, he said. Irimie’s mother had recently visited over the summer break.
Along with Irimie, fellow math teacher Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo were also killed Wednesday.
The pastor said Irimie used the name Cristina in her personal life but that Christina is the Americanized spelling of her name. The tight-knit Romanian community in the Atlanta-area is also reeling from the news.
“She’s a hero for us now,” Clempus said. “She’s an example.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to help her family with funeral expenses.
“She dedicated her life to shaping the minds and hearts of students and the community,” an organizer wrote.
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