COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — It wasn't the building that made Club Q special. It was the community the people inside built.
Many nights, regulars knew they could find that community in bartenders Derrick Rump and Daniel Aston -- because the pair served so much more than drinks.
Daniel's mom, Sabrina Aston, said working at Club Q was her son's first job. He performed there as well.
"He did what he loved to do, bartending, and then he got to do shows, put on shows and things like that," she said.
She can't believe he's gone.
"It's just a nightmare that you can't wake up from," Sabrina Aston said. "I keep thinking it's just, it's a mistake. They've made a mistake."
"He knew all the regulars," Devon Rapken said of their friend. "He had lots of friends and I just I know a lot of people are hurting for him."
Rapken was going to host a Friendsgiving dinner Monday night specifically because it worked best with Daniel's schedule.
"I know everybody says nice things about people when they’re gone, but he was one of those people that I was saying nice things about him before as well," Rapken said.
"What I loved most about Daniel was how comfortable he made me feel -- in his presence and just in my own skin, I guess," they said.
Making people feel comfortable was what Daniel's fellow Club Q bartender Derrick Rump did best too.
"I can pretty much be invisible anywhere I go and he wouldn't let me be invisible even if I tried," Derrick's friend Anna Oliver said. "He would find me and make sure that I was seen. It was like he saw who I was and wanted to show everyone else."
Oliver met Derrick at Club Q six years ago. He kept her coming back, she said.
"Derrick made Club Q a safe space and a safe haven for me and so many others," she said.
When she found out about the shooting at her safe space -- and found out that the person who made it safe had died there -- she was devastated.
"It felt like the world was ending for a while, and it still hurts a lot," she said.
She said her friends will keep Derrick's memory alive by sharing remembrances of him with each other. They plan to honor the community he and Daniel helped build at Club Q.
"He brought you in and made you family," she said.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Colorado Springs Club Q shooting