A kiss for eternity: Photo makes way to Oakland fire victim's girlfriend

Saya Tomioka now has a souvenir of their time collectively, due to the collective energy of strangers.

It was a yr in the past when Tomioka and her boyfriend, Griffin Madden, took a visit to New York Metropolis to absorb the sights, sounds and see a Broadway present. A photographer in Instances Sq. took their picture, however the couple left New York with out getting a duplicate.

Madden, 23, was among the many 36 who died within the hearth on the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland final week.

After the information of his demise, Tomioka took to social media to seek out the picture.

On Sunday, she posted on Fb: "Possibly some fb miracle may occur.... please share...Buddies, presumably together with your assist, I may be reunited with this , this treasured reminiscence that I will at all times hold in my coronary heart. I would like some gentle proper now. I would like a reminder of the brightest gentle of all -- love." Her put up was shared greater than 300 occasions.

The put up made it to Arken Avan, an expert photographer from Queens who has taken a whole lot of images of loving within the coronary heart of town.

"Two individuals shared with me that put up: Saya's buddy Liz Baqir and one in all my NYPD associates, Sgt. Dan Hussey," Avan advised CNN.

"I really keep in mind their faces as a result of they actually look so lovely," Avan advised CNN affiliate WABC. "I noticed her lipstick on his cheek and she or he was having a pretzel."

On Thursday, Tomioka shared the dear second Avan was capable of seize on her Fb web page, saying, "I've been hoping for a miracle, a glimpse of your gentle again into my life. With the infinite assist from our households, associates, and strangers, I lastly discovered you."

"Images on the whole is sort of a time machine you realize. It's a very unhappy second, however I hope she's going to hold this as a reminiscence, as a result of, you realize, we do not dwell perpetually," Avan advised WABC.