KENLY, N.C. -- Friends and loved ones gathered Thursday night at the Minshew-Coley Funeral Home to pay their respects to 60-year-old Marilyn Gomez, who died after a tornado struck her home over the weekend.

"I'm going to miss her, you know,” said her husband, Argiro Gomez, who was injured in the storm. “Twenty-four years I've been with her."

With music, prayer and words, friends and family joined the grieving man to honor his wife’s memory. The Rev. Jim Reed remembered her as someone who had a childlike love of life.

"This was Marilyn's community and we certainly will miss her being a part of it," he said.

During the service, community members talked about all her qualities they'll remember. They mentioned the way she loved to laugh, cook and give to others.

"Not all of them knew my wife as I did,” Gomez said. “All of them expressed their love as much as I did."

Gomez's daughter, Crystal Faria, says her mother would have been touched by the kind words.

"Such a great community like this, I know my mother's smiling right now," she said.

Argiro Gomez suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and other injuries.