Boulder resident Lynn Murray couldn’t have known when she left her home for King Soopers on Table Mesa Drive on Monday that she wouldn’t return.

Murray, who worked as a shopper for Instacart, was one of 10 killed at the store when a lone gunman opened fire a short time later.

“Lynn was a light, a beacon to everyone she came into contact with and brought an indescribable joy to a great many lives,” her husband, John Mackenzie, wrote on a GoFundMe page started by a fellow Instacart shopper, Tracy Nixon.

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Murray, 62, not only left behind her husband of 26 years, but two adult children, Olivia and Pierce.

“My mom really was the most beautiful person I ever met,” her daughter told Gazette news partner 9NEWS. “Most hardworking, most selfless, most beautiful, most creative, so fun-loving.”

Murray studied photography in college and moved to New York City with an eye on launching a photography career, 9NEWS reported. She worked her way up from photographer to editor at companies like Vogue, Glamour and Cosmopolitan, her former colleague Bonnie Fuller tweeted.

“(Lynn) was the most lovely, talented, hardworking and fun photo director,” Fuller wrote. “She made eye-catching covers and fabulous fashion shoots happen. Photographers and their agents loved her and so did the staff.”

Murray also met her husband in New York. After the heyday of their careers, Murray and her husband moved to Boulder to spend their retirement, Nixon said.

Murray spent time driving for Uber and Lyft and shopping for Instacart to make extra money. She was picking up an Instacart order Monday from King Soopers when she ran into one of her friend’s daughters — Hope Cotten, Murray’s friend Janet Cotten said on Facebook.

“They had a cheerful conversation and parted ways,” Janet Cotten wrote. “Hope left the store about three minutes before the shooting started. … Lynn, we soon realized, never made it outside. … All day into the night, we waited with her family for a message from her.”

“None came.”

John Mackenzie texted his wife when he heard about the shooting. After receiving no answer in about five minutes, “I just fell over in my chair,” John Mackenzie said, choking up.

As of Friday, Nixon’s GoFundMe raised over $60,000 for Murray’s family. Nixon said she did not know Murray, but is trying to help the family in the wake of their grief.

“Now they are left with a huge financial burden and this will help them,” Nixon said. “Something is better than nothing.”

Nixon, who developed a friendship with John Mackenzie during the process of fundraising, said Mackenzie wants to advocate for more protections for contract workers like Instacart shoppers.

Murray’s family also raised a little over $5,000 with a separate GoFundMe page.

“She was the most amazing person we knew, our most favorite person on earth,” her family wrote on the page. “She was everything to us.”

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