{"id":306129,"date":"2026-06-13T05:49:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/306129\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T05:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:49:27","slug":"pulse-survivor-discusses-friends-memorial-on-10-year-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/306129\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulse survivor discusses friends, memorial on 10-year mark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Friday marks 10 years since the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub that killed 49 people on June 12, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>For survivors like Brandon Wolf, \u201cIt feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wolf lost two of his friends that night \u2014 Juan Guerrero and Christopher Leinonen. In a recent trip to Orlando prior to the 10-year mark, he paid a visit to the former nightclub site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd what stuck with me was that over those 10 years, I haven\u2019t been able to call them to tell them about all the exciting things I\u2019ve been able to do. I didn\u2019t get to share pictures of the first home I bought with them; there are vacations that they missed, and birthday parties they didn\u2019t get to enjoy. That\u2019s going to be the hardest part of 10 years,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n<p>Wolf left Orlando in 2023 to work for the Human Rights Campaign and will soon move back to the city for a role with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eqfl.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Equality Florida.<\/a> He advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and education around firearms, telling Spectrum News he is proud of survivors for pushing and advocating for changes.<\/p>\n<p>Last June, when <a href=\"https:\/\/mynews13.com\/fl\/orlando\/news\/2025\/06\/11\/survivors--families-to-visit-inside-the-former-pulse-nightclub-9-years-later\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">families and survivors were allowed back inside Pulse before demolition,<\/a> he chose not to enter, saying he\u2019s been there enough times. He describes the 10-year mark as \u201cbittersweet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it (nightclub building) haunted people still being there, hollowed out, looming over the corner,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cSo, I say bittersweet because on the one hand, it is devastating to see it gone, a space that I spent so much time in with the people I love the most. And I think it\u2019s also probably a weight off of people\u2019s shoulders to see some change happen in that space, to see the path cleared for a possibility of what\u2019s next. I know that it weighed heavily on people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The city of Orlando is moving forward with plans to <a href=\"https:\/\/mynews13.com\/fl\/orlando\/news\/2026\/06\/08\/pulse-10-year-mark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">build a permanent memorial<\/a> at the former nightclub site. Construction is expected to begin this fall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s past time to have a permanent memorial space where people can go and reflect, something that\u2019s peaceful and reverent to not just the lived experiences of those who are directly impacted, but also the families of those who had their lives stolen,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n<p>The city has planned a Pulse Remembrance Ceremony to honor the 49 angels and recognize the strength of first responders, families and survivors, too. Anyone in the community is welcome.<\/p>\n<p>It will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 142 East Jackson St., in downtown Orlando.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Friday marks 10 years since the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub that killed 49 people on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,1011,274,770,1015,1190,115,768,139,141,140,16956,278,835],"class_list":["post-306129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-emma-delamo","tag-human-interest","tag-news","tag-orange-county-fl","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pulse-shooting","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}