Dealing with tragedy during the holidays

After three deadly crashes, in 24 hours, those families will never see Thanksgiving the same way. But how do you deal with losing a loved one, especially during the holidays?

In the Cape Coral crash overnight, one child died and another is in the hospital in serious condition.

“When I got to the vehicle I was stomping on the roof on obviously it’s probably this deep into the water and I was stomping on it to see if I could hear anyone in the vehicle and I didn’t hear any sounds,” said Tyler Ravert, who jumped in to save the two kids.

This is just one of three deadly crashes today in Southwest Florida and none of these families will ever be the same.

There was another deadly crash in Collier County and, in North Fort Myers, a man was killed while riding his bicycle.

Angela Melvin is the Founder and CEO at Valerie’s House, a place where people can go get help while experiencing grief and loss. “I can promise you, as someone who lost a parent in a car accident when I was young, I’m still standing and there is hope and that’s what people need to know,” said Melvin.

Angela says it will be difficult for the families of these victims to feel happiness during the holidays again. “When you lose someone during the holidays, yeah, it just steals it. It steals the joy that you can have,” Melvin said.

But she believes there is something you can do to help. “There’s not a lot that you can do, except for, let them know they’re not alone,” she said.

Angela Melvin says the best thing to do is to remind the families of those victims that you’re there for them. Which, can be especially hard during the pandemic.

“People don’t need to be alone right now. And we know how hard it is right now because we’re being told not to get together,” said Melvin.

There are now flowers at that Cape Coral scene, but we do not know if they were left here for the young victim.