In 2012, a White supremacist entered a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and shot Punjab Singh in the cheek, leaving him paralyzed and unable to speak.
On Thursday, mourners celebrated the Sikh priest’s life at his funeral, reported WISN12. Singh died Monday from complications from that shooting, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Singh had come to Wisconsin just days before the massacre which killed six people at the temple before the gunman took his own life.
“People should know that until the day he died he embodied optimism,” said Pardeep Kaleka, of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, told the Journal Sentinel.
Singh could not speak, but friends say he could understand others and would respond by blinking his eyes.
“He was a spiritual leader,” family friend Mandeep Kaur said. “He traveled throughout the United States and in India. He was a preacher by profession. He was someone who believed in honest living, helping the less fortunate. Someone that believed in health. He was very active. When it came to eating, he was cautious by what he ate.”
Singh’s granddaughter said his eternal optimism exemplified what a Sikh should be, according to WISN12.
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