Home City: Staten Island, NY
Crash Anniversary: January 10, 2006
"Our life of our youngest child, Mariana Judith Edkins, born on August 18, 1987, was taken away from us on January 10, 2006. She was eighteen. Mariana was riding in the passenger side of a gold Hyundai Accent, driven by her friend. A twenty-one year old man, driving on the opposite side of Woodrow Road, near Rossville Avenue, lost control of his black Ford Suburban, crossed over the wide median, and slammed into the Hyundai Accent at 60 to 80 miles per hour, never applying his brakes, nor did he have his headlights on. Mariana’s life was ended on that lonely stretch of Woodrow Road because he decided to drive, after a day of drinking and drugging.
The shock and sadness of losing Mariana to such a selfish betrayal of his driver's license, with total disregard for anyone else who was on the road, has immeasurably affected our family. Thankfully our marriage did not disintegrate, I feel mainly because we chose to get involved and tell Mariana’s story in our words. To convince drivers of the reality of the results of driving while drunk, we tell Mariana’s story from the time we received a phone call to come to the hospital, to the end, when we had to leave Mariana in a grave in the cemetery alone. We had to walk away from our daughter to be buried because of someone’s decision to drive a car when he went out drinking and drugging.
Mariana had it all going for her. She was beautifully pretty, vivacious, energetic and vocal, talking and singing a lot. During high school, she ran on the track team, Outdoor, Indoor and Cross Country seasons. She set some records on Staten Island too. She was preparing to begin college at CSI the week after she was killed. The Registrar’s Office sent a Sympathy card to us, saying that she had made an impression on them when she registered and they had looked forward to having her as a student! She even had one college credit in Psychology 101!
In our family, she was the little sister, five years younger than her siblings. Her cousins looked up to her, she was older but fun and played and babysat for them.
Our hearts are broken, her life was cut short because of the criminal driving of the drunk young man. Mariana did not get to live out her life the way she would have wanted, getting a college degree, a career and possibly the love of a husband and children. We, her parents, keep her memory alive by doing our best to convince drivers to not drive after drinking or drugging."
-Mary Ann and Charles Edkins, Sr.
Get The Word Out