MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio – It’s a somber day on Watson Road.
Just days before, the street was bustling with children playing in their front yards.
Yet, this Easter Sunday, Kimmeka Roberts says neighbors are holding their children a little bit tighter.
“You get this kind of news, you know, make you be thankful for what you have,” she said. “Count your blessings.”
A neighbor and friend Maria Thorpe died in a car crash Friday night.
According to police, the woman was driving her four children through the intersection at Northfield Road and Berwyn Street in Bedford. A truck slammed into Thorpe’s car.
Thorpe, 30, was killed, along with two of her children, 8-year-old Zariah Roberts and 5-year-old Zyannah Roberts.
Two children survived the crash. A 12-year-old girl, Zulaikah, was treated and released from the hospital.
However, Bedford Police said the 10-year-old girl, Zumyah, remains in critical condition.
“My prayers for this is what Zumyah pulls through so that them two sisters that survived can be there for each other, that they can lean on each other,” Roberts said.
Thorpe’s tight-knit family was anxious for a new arrival. She was six months pregnant, expecting a baby girl.
“I was so excited when she was telling me she was pregnant, and I’m like ‘you want a boy this time?’ she was like, ‘but it’s probably going to be a girl,’” Roberts said.
“And I remember the day she came home from the doctor, I was calling her, and she said ‘I was just about to call you, Kim.’ She said, ‘I’m having another girl,’ and I was ‘another girl,’ Yeah, she loved her girls, she loved her girls.”
But for one boy, the loss is just setting in.
Robert’s 8-year-old son, Chase, plans on taking a bag of toys to the site of the crash, in honor the little girls he played with on Watson Road.
“She loved her girls. She was all about her girls, all about her girls,” Roberts said, holding back her tears. “Like I said, it just makes you thankful for what you have. Appreciate it because it might not be here tomorrow.”
Bedford Police say a Warrensville Heights man, 48, struck Thorpe’s car. He sustained no significant injuries, but he is behind held by police. It’s believed that alcohol may have been a factor in the crash.