BUFFALO, N.Y. — May 14, 2023 is Mother's Day. It's also the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Buffalo's Jefferson Avenue Tops store.

"Loving, fun. Resilient woman, hard-working. She was just a ball of joy to be around," said Wayne Jones, the son of Celestine Chaney.

Jones, along with two of his youngest kids, took time to talk about his mom, reflecting on the last year without her.

"It's been hard. It's been exhausting. It's been tiring. It's a whole ball of emotions, like angry, sad," Jones said.

He said he used to take her grocery shopping, where the two would walk and talk for hours throughout the store. Ironically, it was not at the Tops on Jefferson. Wayne said after an exhaustive search at several other stores, his mom had just run in looking for dessert cups for her strawberry shortcake. 

"And now it's just like quiet when I shop now. Just me shopping," said Wayne.

But it also comes with an added heightened sense of awareness.

"Pay attention to your surroundings. It's just a whole bunch of emotions I go through," Jones said.

Spectrum News 1 first met the family days after the shooting. Chaney's sister, Joann, was in the store with her at the time. Since then, Wayne says he does find happiness in bringing his kids, her grandkids, together.

He says he wishes his younger kids had more time with her as he and his older ones did with the woman who survived three aneurysms and breast cancer.

"I've been at the door of her passing away several times. I've always been like prepared for a sickness or something like that and she'd pass away. But this was like, I never even thought anything like this would happen," said Wayne.

That's why it's important to Wayne to keep her spirit and memory alive.

"She smiled regularly. Helped people regularly. So, she was just a good person," said Wayne.