May Angels Lead Them In…

On June 27th, 2002…the lives of two families changed forever. My brother Jesse Diaz Jr along with his two friends Pearl Rodriguez, and Ram had left my parent’s home to pick up another friend. Jesse was the Valedictorian of his senior class and was a 4.0 student at UT Austin, Pearl had dreams of one day becoming a a veterinarian. Pearl was the driver and my brother Jesse was a backseat passenger when they were hit by another driver. I remember driving home from work and from afar all I could see was flashing lights. As I got near I noticed that a really bad car accident was backing up the traffic just a block away from our house. It didn’t take long for our worst nightmare to begin. Pearl died on impact….for my family, we experienced 4 long and agonizing days. On July 1st, my brother died at the age of 19. All his dreams, aspirations, and all that he had worked for quickly came to an end. After everything had happened, we found out that Jesse was not wearing a seatbelt…accusations came about that Pearl was using her cell phone and to top of it all……..a DRUNK DRIVER who was going 70mph on a 55 had hit them. Every year, every summer….two families mourn the loss of their loved ones. Our roads are already infested by distracted drivers don’t be caught driving while distracted when there’s drunk drivers on our roads. We will never know if Pearl was in fact using her phone but if in any given case she was….maybe she would have noticed the speeding car coming straight at them. Today marks the 8th year of not having these two precious and beautiful lives…and our lives will NEVER ever be the same without them…

- YD
Weslaco, Texas