The Cho family walked into Eddie’s Diner the morning of May 6 like they did nearly every weekend. The place was busy, but they snagged a table by the kitchen and settled into their Saturday morning routine. Kyu Cho colored with William, who just turned 6. Cindy Cho fed James, 3 and wiggly, bites off her plate.
After breakfast, the family drove 13 miles up the road to the Allen outlet mall to return a shirt. It was their last family outing. William left the mall in an ambulance as the sole survivor of his family in a shooting that took eight lives. He survived under the shelter of his mother’s body.
The owner of Eddie’s Diner, Lydia Miftari, said Cindy and Kyu were some of the best parents she’s ever seen. They brought their boys to her Plano restaurant weekly and braved the long waits for tables to keep up their Saturday tradition.
“I never saw them on their phones,” she said. “They were really engaged. They were just a beautiful family.”
William always wanted chocolate chip pancakes, which come dusted with powdered sugar, she said. Cindy was always smiling, and she and her husband had an effortless way about them.
Kyu, 37, was born in South Korea and raised in Dallas. He got a degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and another at Ave Maria School of Law. He was president of the Moot Court Board and worked as a student advocate for his school’s immigration law clinic to help people obtain asylum.
He had “a deep pride, respect, and appreciation for the American Dream,” which compelled him to become an immigration attorney, according to his staff bio at Porter Legal Group. “Q,” as he was known at the office, was fluent in Korean and was learning Spanish so he could speak with his many Latin American clients.
Cindy, 35, spent her early years in College Station and Houston, where she was active in church youth groups, choir and summer vacation Bible school. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin and attended the University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio for dental school. She most recently worked as a dentist at CK Dental City in McKinney.
The couple met at church while they were both living in Boston around 2014, said their friends Phyllis Myung and Jessica Chen. They were perfect opposites. Cindy was quiet and soft spoken while Kyu was loud and quick to unleash deep belly laughs. Both were unfailingly kind.
Cindy would go out of her way to make new members of their church feel welcome, Myung recalled. Chen remembers her as the friend who was always first to reach out and check on friends, no matter how busy she was.
Kyu had a purity and childlike demeanor about everything he did, Chen said. He was also notoriously terrible with directions. One time, in a mall food court, his friends and Cindy pranked him when he left for the bathroom. They moved a few tables over.
“The look on his face,” Chen said. “You would have thought he just walked into a whole new space. He was so lost. If I close my eyes, I can still hear him laughing.”
Cindy’s childhood friends, Jennifer Moon and Diana Kim, met her at Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Houston, where they suffered through early morning praise team practices and talked about boys.
Cindy was two grades above Moon, but never made her feel as if she were too young to hang out with her. Cindy hardly ever got mad, Moon said. If one of her friends did something bad, she would cover her mouth and giggle.
The three friends would pass notes in church with messages like, “This service is so boring” or “Where are we going to eat after this?” But Cindy would always take notes on the sermon and follow along in her Bible.
Once, for a church event, they put on matching red shirts and danced to the 2000s gospel song “Shackles” by Mary Mary. Cindy wanted to be in the back. She never did like the spotlight.
Kyu and Cindy were married in 2016 in a Korean ceremony. Friends snapped pictures of a teary-eyed Kyu as Cindy glided down the aisle. They ate barbecue and played couples trivia at their reception. William came a year later, and James three years after that.
James loved elephants and was advanced for his age, his daycare teacher Trinity Whitley told WFAA-TV (Channel 8).
“He was sweet and smart, and he was so cute,” she said. “I’ve never actually met a 3-year-old that was that smart. He was 3 and he was writing his own name.”
Cindy and Kyu loved being parents, Myung said.
“The world is a less joyous place with them gone.”
William, who was hospitalized after the shooting, returned home to be cared for by family.
Breaking news reporter Hojun Choi contributed to this report.
