Obama and his wife, Michelle, met with members of each of the 14 families in the library of Indian Springs High School yesterday night before heading to Hawaii for their annual holiday getaway.
A separate table was set up for each family, and the Obamas moved from one to the next, spending about 10 minutes with each victim's relatives.
When Obama approached the table where Mandy Pifer was sitting, he said, "Words aren't enough. How about a hug?" Pifer's boyfriend Shannon Johnson, 45, was killed in the attack.
"It just felt like they were really present in their conversation with me," she said. "They are sick and tired of doing these things, meeting our families."
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Such meetings have become a grim ritual of Obama's presidency. Most recently, he met privately in October with families of the victims of a student gunman who killed eight classmates and a teacher at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, before turning the gun on himself.
Obama said meeting with the families in San Bernardino was a reminder "of what's good in this country."
Pifer had told the Obamas about Johnson, how he loved life, his virtues and their future plans. She also shared with them what she knows about his last moments: His colleague Denise Peraza, who survived the attack, said Johnson huddled with her under a table as bullets flew across the room. He held her close and told her, "I got you."