The whole Arellano family

[Joe_in_RP]

June 30, 2003

After the Crash, Mourning the Loss of Four Generations

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

ERSEY CITY, June 29 — The last time Omar Arellano spoke to his sister, Katiuska Viviana Holguin-Troya, everything seemed to be going smoothly, he said. It was on Saturday morning, and Ms. Holguin-Troya had said she and the rest of the family — her daughter, mother and grandmother — were about 30 minutes away from the religious retreat where they would meet him. The group would bring him breakfast, she promised.

When 30 minutes came and went, Mr. Arellano grew concerned. But other people going to the retreat, at a Seventh-day Adventist Church campus in Tranquility, N.J., told him not to worry. There was a bad accident on Interstate 80 in Morris County, they reported, and his relatives were probably stuck in traffic.

A few hours later, Mr. Arellano learned that the black Honda carrying his family was actually involved in the crash. All four died after it collided with two other vehicles when its brakes failed, investigators believe.

The thought of four generations of women dying at once fell heavily on the close-knit families that attend the Jersey City Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church here.

Carlos Matus, who lives next to the church, simply shook his head, started to sob, and whispered, in Spanish, "Four."

But the fact that the four — Mercedes L. Romero, 78; her daughter Adelina E. Troya, 46, the driver; her daughter Ms. Holguin-Troya, 23; and her daughter, Desteny DelCid, 7 — had been in one car when they died was not a surprise.

"They were really united," said Nilia Febles, 13, a neighbor who sometimes played with Desteny. "They were always together."

Neighbors said that on weekday mornings, Ms. Holguin-Troya would go to the store, return with cups of coffee for her mother and grandmother and kiss them goodbye. Then she would hop into her car and drop Desteny off at school, Mr. Arellano said, before heading to her job as a clerk for a trucking company.

In the afternoons, Desteny would walk home from school with either her grandmother or great-grandmother, sometimes both, almost always stopping for ice cream along the way.

Her grandmother, Ms. Troya, sold perfume from the family's home, neighbors said. Ms. Romero used to baby-sit and do other odd jobs, Mr. Arellano said, but in recent years she seemed to spend most of her time doting on Desteny.

The family moved to Jersey City from Guayaquil, Ecuador, about 17 years ago, Mr. Arellano said.

"The dream, coming to America, all that stuff," he said.

None of the five had returned to Ecuador since then, he said, but the family had planned to take a trip there next year.

In Jersey City, they moved around a few times before settling into their most spacious home yet: a four-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a three-story building.

Mr. Arellano, who works as an auto technician, lived with the rest of the family until a few months ago, when he moved to Paterson. Still, he would stop by nearly every evening, join whoever was home for home-cooked fried chicken or beans and rice. He would watch, and sometimes join in, as Desteny crafted dolls and animals from Play-Doh.

But on Saturdays, the family would get ready to go to church. They would wake up at 7 a.m., Mr. Arellano said, shower, dress in their finest clothing and drive to church, a few blocks away. Every week, the family would sit in the last row, even though they were always among the first to arrive.

The retreat the women had been traveling to Saturday morning was an annual event that the two oldest women in particular had looked forward to, Mr. Arellano said.

LeRoy Finck, president of the New Jersey Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Churches, said 2,000 people were participating in Sabbath ceremonies when he heard about the accident.

He said he wanted to cancel activities, including an evening concert, but Mr. Arellano had insisted that the day go on as planned.

"When I was praying with him, his whole body was shaking," Pastor Finck said. "He is emotionally destroyed. His whole family is gone."

Today, Mr. Arellano clung to his faith as he struggled with his new reality.

"I know the Lord has a plan," he said, as friends from church, many of whom had spent countless hours playing and eating at his family's home, stood by. "And things happen for a reason."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/30/nyregi...p;amp;position=

[Joe_in_RP]

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[Gail]

How awful and very sad <img src="http://www.clubadventist.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />