Easter Weekend and The Car Wreck/"Smash Up"

It seems that accidents are something that are inevitable when one lives in S. Florida. Big roads, nice cars and in the quiet of the early morning, anything can happen in the blink of an eye. On Sunday morning five friends were returning from a party on South Beach when their car ran off the road and hit a tree then burst into flames. Four out of the five of them burned to death in the car and the one who survived was supposedly thrown through the windscreen of the car from where he sat in the middle in the back. His wife was the driver. She died along with another girl, and two other guys. They were all Trinis and they went to high school together. Four of them lived on the same street and the last one lived less than a 1/2 mile away. I guess it shook up the entire Trini community here. My parents barely knew the people but they went two nights in the wake. My mom talks about the crash nonstop. She knew that speed may have been a definite factor in the crash but for her (and other parents as well) they only see it as the loss of four children. according to the newspaper report, the eldest person in the car was 26 and the youngest was 22. their bodies were burnt beyond recognition and dental records were required to identify them.
Right away, i was reminded of my friend Darsh, who died almost three years ago in another horrible accident on the florida turnpike. Sometimes, it is hard to believe that he died.
For the wake, people simply parked their car and walked from one house to the other. My mom told me that it was one thing to see it on the news and another thing to be there and see the parents of these kids. I guess for them, it is the reverse order of things. Parents do not expect to see the death of their kids and when they do, they never recover from it. My mom was telling me today that no one could reason with any of the mothers there. I guess there is nothing that one could say when things like this happens. Then she said that it is better that they cry as much as they need to because for now, their tears will be their only comfort.
The news was carried in the local section of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel today and it was also in today's Trinidad Express. The Sun-Sentinel called it a wreck and in Trini terms, it was called by the local word, a "smash up." Hence, the title.
Whatever it is called, it is disturbing. These people were in my age group. i feel for their families. I am very proud of the Trini community here because they showed up in their numbers to support the families...even when they did not know the people personally. They have kept the brotherhood that they formed when they first came to Trinidad so many years ago. They may fight amongst each other and they may not show up to the temple functions, to weddings or parties but they show up when there is a funeral...and that is most important. For the families, this is all that they have now...the support of others who are like them and who understand and sympathize with them.
i guess i can post the link from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and some of the pictures of the crash.

on a stranger note....i must mention furgie's experience that morning...around the same time the crash occurred. (by the way, the families live only a mile away from us). it was about 5am sunday morning and furgie was awakened by a voice that said, "i'm coming to get you!" she was sleeping on the couch in the back tv room of the house and the voice was coming from outside. then the voice was followed by a bunch of sounds that sounded like gurgling and choking sounds. it was about the same time when furgie ran into the room, making a lot of noise, and jumped on the bed and covered from head to toe....i had a good laugh. my mother thinks that it had something to do with the crash....and she is mentioning the roses once again! they are blooming once more. she claims that they are bad luck. i told her that they were my birthday present and then i told her that i was not superstitious like that but if she really believed that they were the reason for people dying, then she should move them....it is her home after all!

As for these four souls, i pray that they find peace and that the one person who survived recovers mentally as well as physically. and for their parents, i hope they find solace.