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A Hopeful Little Tree & a Reopening in Windsor TerraceM a y 2 5t h , 2 0 0 8 1 Co m m e n t

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38117599@N00/2519617617/

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There is hopeful news from Windsor Terrace and Eden Cleaners, which was the site of the

murder of a beloved neighborhood business person last week. A memorial tree has been quietly

planted, the slain owners son reopen ed the store yesterday morning and says he intends to

carry on the business. A memorial fund has been started by resident Brenna Beirne and her

neighbors in Kyun g-Sook W oos honor . First, the news about the tree via an email we

received:

It was planted this morning outside Eden Dry Cleaners. A sapling in line with a

series of older, mature trees along that street. No fanfare or ceremony. They just

put it in and people started noticing that it was there. A neighbor spoke with Mrs.

Woos son who spoke oft h e f a m ily s d e t e r m in a t io n t o k e e p t h e s t o r e

o p e r a t i n g , saying this is what his mother would have wanted, and who pointed

proudly to the tree.

Meanwhile, the Linda Woo Mem orial Fund has been created for those who want to make

donations to pay for a memorial plaque. Per an email, Checks can be made out to the Linda Woo

Memorial Fund, placed in an envelope marked Memorial Fund and dropped in the mail slots of

either 243 Windsor Place- beginning Tuesday May 27th, or 18 Reeve Place- beginning

immediately. They can also be mailed to the Linda Woo Memorial Fund c/o Brenna Beirne, 711

Greenwood Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11218. Donations can also be made via paypal to the account,community11218@gmail.com. The Times has an account of Edens first day back in business with

brothers Kenneth and Daniel Oh

http://www.gowanuslounge.com/2008/05/19/windsor-terrace-mourns-kyung-sook-woo/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/nyregion/25cleaners.html?ref=nyregionhttp://www.gowanuslounge.com/category/windsor-terrace/http://www.gowanuslounge.com/category/crime/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/nyregion/25cleaners.html?ref=nyregionhttp://www.gowanuslounge.com/2008/05/19/windsor-terrace-mourns-kyung-sook-woo/

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Tears and Memories as Business Resumes at DryCleaners Where Woman Was Killed

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

Kenneth Oh helped customers on Saturday at his mothers shop in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.

By MANNY FERNANDEZ

Published: May 25, 2008

Eden Dry Cleaners and Tailoring opened about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Kenneth Oh and a friend assisted the first customers. His younger brother,

Daniel Oh, and some helpers arrived a few hours later.

Bouquets of flowers were pushed up against the window ledges, and there

was still the thinnest of threads running through their mothers sewing

machine. It was the first day that the shop, to which their mother had devoted

her life, had been open for business since May 15. On May 16, she was found

dead in the shop, killed in what the police said was a robbery.

The Ohs mother, Kyung-Sook Woo, 62, came to the United States from Seoul, South Korea, in the

early 1980s and doted on her two sons, her three grandchildren and her little shop called Eden. It

sat on the quiet corner of 10th Avenue and Windsor Place in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of

Brooklyn.

Customers some of whom had been bringing their clothes to her for more than a decade said

her favorite saying was no problem. She was behind the counter six days a week, usually 12

hours a day, stitching, waving, laughing, talking. She was robbed at least twice when the store was

at another location on Windsor Place, but still she kept going. When some customers would bring

in their children, Mrs. Woo would step from behind the counter to hug them.

All day on Saturday, some of those same customers came into the store with tears in their eyes.

Everyone knew the shopkeeper simply as Linda, and they all had a Linda story.

Before New Yorks presidential primary, Jackie Gavron, 48, asked Mrs. Woo if she could put a

sign in the window in support of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton; Mrs. Woo agreed, saying that

she liked strong women. Jeremy Krevat, 37, was on his way to an interview for a sales job one day

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last year when he stopped in the store and Mrs. Woo noticed that he was missing a stay in his

collar. She just came over and put one in, he said. He got the job.

On Saturday, people entered the store somewhat timidly, awkwardly, many holding their pink and

white claim slips. Grief is hard, and grief in the middle of a transaction over dress shirts is not any

easier.

One man apologized for not having his ticket. I never used to bring my ticket because she knew

who I was, he said.

Another man spent several minutes with Kenneth Oh, searching the long racks behind the counter

for a suit that he had dropped off for cleaning and alterations. The suit was soon discovered, and

Mr. Oh, examining the cuffs of the pants, smiled.

She did the work, he told the man. All you got to do is iron. This is the last work she did.

Last Sunday, the police arrested Jamal Winter, 22, of nearby Park Slope and charged him with

murder and robbery in the case. The police said they believe that Mrs. Woo was strangled the night

before her body was found.

The day of the attack, she had asked a neighbor to chase away a man who had frightened her by

hanging out in front of her shop all day, the neighbor said.

Kenneth Oh, 40, said the motive appeared to involve not money but a car. He said that he had

bought his mother a 2008 Honda Accord for Mothers Day, and that the attacker may have had

his eye on the car for days. The car, parked near the shop, was missing after the killing. It was

found about a block and a half away from the suspects residence, the police said.

The two brothers later read an article in The Daily News saying that Mr. Winter had served time for

robbery and was out of jail at the time of Mrs. Woos killing because of a legal technicality. They

were outraged.

I dont know why he was released, said Daniel Oh, 38, who owns a nail salon on Long Island.

There has been an outpouring of sympathy and shock in Windsor Terrace over the killing. On

Thursday night, about 140 people filled the intersection outside the shop for a vigil.

John Maloney, a retired truck driver who has lived in the neighborhood for all his 67 years,

referred to Mrs. Woo not as Linda but as Mom.

Mom was part of the community, he said. She had operated the business in the neighborhood for

18 years.

Customers also worried about the fate of the store. Kenneth and Daniel Oh told them on Saturday

that they would keep the shop open. Were going to save this business, said Kenneth, a regional

sales manager for an international cargo company. The brothers said they would close the storefor the coming week, reopening on May 31.

A truck pulled up and parked on Saturday morning. Workers with shovels started digging, and

another truck arrived shortly after. A tree was being planted, in memory of Mrs. Woo.