About Portland: Friends of Haruka Weiser Remember Her

Fighting back tears, six friends of Haruka Weiser spent forty minutes Sunday letting the world know what was lost when she was murdered.

“She lived the way that she wanted, she did the things she wanted to and she pursued what she wanted to,” said Jade Sentker.

“I think that is how we all should try to live,”

Lily Summer talked of what pushed Haruka.

“She was so passionate about everything she did, but also humble,” she said. “She never bragged about it or talked about it. She always strove to be the best, but she would do that by working for it, not talking about it.”

Marina Neal spoke about Haruki’s ability to remove fear from the equation.

"No matter where she was or what adventures she was on or how new or scary it would be to anyone else, she made it feel like home,” Marina said.

“She was just the most beautiful person. She was going to do so many incredible things.”

The possibilities for the future ended Monday when Haruka, who grew up in Portland and went to school in Beaverton, was murdered by the University of Texas where she was a freshman dance major.

The six friends all went to school with her at the Arts and Communications Magnet Academy. Four of them graduated with her last year.

Jade Sentker remembered the first time she met Haruka. it was in sixth grade.

"We were all writing, and Haruka was sitting sideways in her chair with her notebook in her lap and just looking up and thinking," Sentker said.

"She had something about her where you wanted to get to know her. She stood out.”

But it was not something that Haruka tried to do, they all agreed. She would try to divert attention from herself by downplaying her abilities.

“I’m so bad dancing, awful”, Madisyn Lane quoted her friend as saying. “But then you would see her dance it was like, are you kidding me? You would just be blown away.”

Dancing got Haruka a full scholarship to the University of Texas. Last week, the school’s president talked of how they recruited her.

Dancing also brought her joy, her friends said Sunday.

“You could see it on her face when she was dancing, how she felt about it,” said Delphine Chang.

“it definitely made her incredibly happy even if she was having a rough day dancing word bring it her out of it that dark time.”

Lily Summer said her friend was always dancing, “even in the kitchen.”

To which Amelia Carroll added, “And in the car.”

“And always looking good,” Summer responded.

While dance fueled her, it was far from her only interest.

Recently, Haruka - the daughter of a doctor and a social worker - had decided she would also major in pre-med.

“She would tell people that she was dance and pre-med,” said Sentker. “And people would just look at her.

The friends made a point of saying that Haruka is Japanese for “open-minded.”

The six of them agreed that as much as dance fueled Haruka, she fueled them, was their leader.

She would bake for them, cook for them, lead them on picnics at Pittock Mansion, hikes to Angels Rest.

Last year, there was a trip to Los Angeles that Haruka would not be able to go on because of a dance commitment.

Still, Sentker remembered, Haruka had gotten up early, made them all sandwiches for the plane, and then drove to them to the airport.

“She took care of us,” Sentker said.

Lane talked about how the group of them had been comparing themselves to the components of a shirt.

“One of us was the pattern, one of us was the color,” she said. “She was the string that held us all together. She just really took care of us really well, everyone in her life.”

Summer agreed.

“She held us together,” she said. Without her, things will “be less put together.”

“It’s going to be less colorful,” Sentker said. “She had a presence, she was respected.

“Everyone feels hopeless.”

Carroll added: “She nurtured so many people.”

They shared Haruki’s senior quote, which was from Winnie the Pooh: “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard” and made it clear it is how they feel about their friend.

“We all knew that she would have super happy kids and a husband that adored her,” said Summer.

“And she would host all in her basement when we needed a place to stay,” added Neal.

Last week, the four surviving members of last year’s senior class sat down to figure out a way to always remember Haruka.

They decided to get tattoos of a pentagon. It represents the five of them.

And the shape, they realized, resembled a home.

And at home is how Haruka always made them feel.