Tina Ayer
WARWICK, R.I.
Tina Ayer, 33, was so excited that the band Great White was staying at the Fairfield Inn in Warwick where she worked, she met the band, got the autograph of lead singer Jack Russell, and was invited to the concert at The Station for free.
"She was into the band," said Dennis Bellucci, housekeeping supervisor and Ayer's supervisor at the inn. "She talked to the band and got their autograph. It's tragic, but ironic."
Ayer and her friend and coworker, Jackie Bernard, went to the show last Thursday night. Bernard made it out safely, but lost Ayer in the crowd.
"Tina just loved life," said her twin sister, Tammy Ayer, of Bristol, R.I. "She was always worried about other people. I wouldn't be surprised if she was trying to help someone else" get out of the club.
Ayer had a wild streak, her sister said, but she also was so kind she once gave her jacket to a homeless man in Providence.
"It was winter, and she just took it off and gave it to him," Tammy Ayer said. "We ran to the car so she could get warm."
Typically seen wearing her leather jacket and blue jeans, Ayer had several tattoos -- a Harley-Davidson eagle on her left arm that said Mom, and the names of her children, Kayla, 15, and Daniel, 7, tattooed on her right arm.
She could "go into a bar and walk out with 20 friends," Tammy Ayer said.
Her passions were music, singing, and dancing. But the loves of her life were her children. "She spoiled them rotten," Tammy Ayer said. "Everything she had went to her children. She never bought anything for herself."
Even though Ayer had been an employee at the inn for only six months, co-worker Marchella Hayes said Ayer will be missed. She was "pleasant, cheerful, and dependable. She got along with everyone," Hayes said.
"We were all supposed to go" to the Great White concert, said Bellucci. "My employees are very close. This is a small hotel with a small staff. [The employees] would all hang out after work."
STEPHANIE CHELF
