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Speaking to hundreds of mourners on Thursday, the daughter of slain Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner delivered a tearful eulogy as her mother was laid to rest after she was shot to death in the lobby of her New York City office building earlier this week.
“My mom was like my rock,” the 14-year-old told the congregation at Central Synagogue in Midtown Manhattan, according to the New York Post.
LePatner was gunned down in the lobby of 345 Park Avenue on Monday after a man opened fire inside the office building, killing four people before taking his own life.
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“I went over this scenario a thousand times in my head, and I only thought it would happen when I was older,” the teen said.
The heartfelt tribute continued, with LePatner’s tearful daughter describing her anguish.
“I never imagined this happening when I was 14,” she said. “It’s just unimaginable that this actually happened. I keep thinking it’s a prank or like a lucid dream, and that someone’s going to jump out and say, ‘Ha, ha. It was all a joke.’
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The 43-year-old and her husband, Evan LePatner, have two children together. The pair met at Yale University, according to the New York Post.
“How does the husband of a giant like Wesley possibly capture her in a short eulogy?” he asked mourners.
“There’s a huge, gaping Mount Everest-sized hole in my life right now,” the grieving husband said. “I know everyone here has different-sized versions of it from her loss.”
LePatner worked as the chief executive officer of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, according to the company’s website.
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“It is overwhelming and awesome all at once,” her husband said. “It speaks to the supernatural abilities Wesley had and the way she made the world better for all of us.”
LePatner’s father, Larry Mittman, remembered that his newborn daughter seemed “to have the most intelligent eyes that I have ever seen.”
“I held Wesley in my arms with these two huge eyes, looking not only at me, but looking around the delivery room,” Mittman said. “And it was almost like a periscope circling the room.”
LePatner previously served on the UJA-Federation of New York board with Merryl Tisch, the mother of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who referred to LePatner as her “beautiful friend” at a vigil earlier this week, the Post reported.
Three additional victims – NYPD Police Officer Didarul Islam, security guard Aland Etienne and a Rudin employee – were also remembered at services throughout the city following their deaths.
LePatner’s daughter spoke about the scope of her loss, telling those gathered, “Every time I hear the doorbell ring I think it’s her, and I get excited. I just miss her so much.”
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