Family, friends and community members who have visited the memorial for the five Lee County teenagers who perished in a car accident overnight said it helped them in their grieving process. Even the tow truck driver who helped pull the vehicle out of the sea early Monday morning returned to the scene hours later to pay his respects.
The words of Breanna Coleman’s cousin, Victor Ayala, who said, “It gives me a bit of a loop,” ring true.
Ayala reported that since Breanna’s father called him this morning, he has been in a state of disbelief. When my cousin called me this morning, the very first thing that came to his mind was, “Wow, that can’t happen,” and he added that he just couldn’t believe what ‘he heard.
He mentioned that they just celebrated his high school graduation a week ago. “She was also very smart and she was excited to go to college.” Oh, it’s so hard,” he remarked. And he wasn’t the only person to lay a wreath or leave a memory at the memorial, which was created to honor Breanna Coleman, Eric Cox, Jackson Eyre, Amanda Ferguson and Jesus Salinas.
“Although I wasn’t particularly close to her, she definitely left an impression on me, and hearing the news left a heavy feeling in my chest.” “When I saw her photo, I just stopped dead,” Skyelinda Morales said.
Morales said she would be sad to see Ferguson go. It has been reported that Ferguson was always kind to others and had a way of making others laugh. She remarked, “In all honesty, all I can hope for is that they think about all those wonderful memories because at this point, that’s all we have.” Early Monday we had a chat with Andrew Cox, Eric’s father. “As a parent, you don’t want your child to die before you do, and we’re at that point now,” he added. “But now we are here.” “We just die of it. In other words, we are powerless to stop the unfolding of life events. Another rotation in the cycle of life. Right now, we are living in the present moment. Like any other family could be, yet this one is already ours.
We were told that each of the five teenagers was very close to each other. At the Texas Roadhouse in Fort Myers, where they all worked, there were four of them. “Would you please pray for both of us and for them?” he said. According to statements made to NBC2 by friends of the teenagers, all of them are simply trying to come to terms with what happened, but they are certain that their friends are watching over them. The Fort Myers Police Department is requesting any information about the collision that may assist in their investigation.
