Three teens together last time as loved ones grieve

Eric Leake

Friday, March 18, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

Three teens killed in a bus stop crash were together for the final time Thursday while those who knew them mourned as one family.

The open caskets of Reginald Williams, 16, Raquel Jimenez, 16, and Angelica Jimenez, 14, lay side by side for visitation in the small chapel at the Thomas and Jones Funeral Home.

"They were always together. They lived together and we wanted them to do this last thing together," said Michelle Williams Price, the mother of Williams.

Today Williams will be sent to his family home in Alabama and the Jimenez sisters to California for their funerals.

As visitors arrived, Price and Clara Guardado, the mother of the Jimenez sisters, took a moment to embrace in the funeral home annex.

"I just talked to her about the kids, how they were inseparable, with us, and in our hearts," Price said. "We let each other know that we will always be there for one another even though our kids passed, that we're family."

Guardado said the same and that seeing all her daughters' friends reminded her how of what kind of girls they were.

"They were happy-go-lucky," she said. "Apparently I never knew how liked they were. They had so many friends."

The teens and Samantha Gail Allen, 36, died Monday morning when a sport utility vehicle crashed through a bus stop at Smoke Ranch Road and Rock Springs Drive. The driver, Veronica Schmidt, 34, was uninjured and has not been charged with any crimes. Police have said she may have lost control because of a medical condition and are still investigating.

Nearly 100 people packed the chapel at the end of visitation to hear a prayer and goodbyes.

Catalina Mejia, 14, wanted her late friends to know that she still loved them.

"She was a really good friend. We used to laugh a lot," she said of Raquel Jimenez through tears.

Others remembered the teens with song, flowers, or on the front of T-shirts bearing William's picture and worn by about 20 people in his memory.

"I really appreciate what you all have done," Price told her son's friends. "You just don't know how I felt when you turned the corner and I saw my baby's face everywhere."

She said she recognized her son in photos but not the heavily made-up body in the casket. Price said she still could not believe he was gone.

Hugh Dupree, a youth minister at the Portals to Glory Church of God in Christ, never knew the crash victims but visited out of sympathy and respect.

"It touches my heart when I see young people lose their lives. I don't have words for it right now," Dupree said.

The community support has been a surprise and comfort to Humberto Jimenez, the girls' father.

"People we don't know, and they come to support us with anything we need," he said. "They help a lot. I don't know how we could handle it by ourselves."

An additional comfort to Guardado, the girls' mother, was the vision a psychic reported on a morning radio show.

"He said all he saw was a light with angels all around....They were angels so they belong with the angels," Guardado said. "That was what we needed to hear."

Separate accounts have been established to help the families with funeral expenses. Account 7242426448 at Wells Fargo Bank benefits the Jimenez family, and account 1811065788 at Washington Mutual Bank benefits the Williams family.