Demetrius Randle's homecoming on Tuesday was bittersweet.

Joyous family members greeted him with balloons and banners, eager to see him come home to Lawrenceville after months of inpatient rehabilitation at North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell.

He ate fast-food hamburger and fries – a welcome change from the hospital food – and settled on the couch to play video games. But three urns on the living room coffee table were a sad reminder of everything the family has been through.

On March 31, Randle and his family were involved in the deadliest crash to occur on I-85 in northeast Georgia in more than 15 years.

They were riding in the back of a limousine, heading from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to their house in Lawrenceville, when they were caught up in a five-car collision that killed four people. Randle's 14-year-old son, Alex, and 21-year-old daughter, Whitney, died, along with Whitney's infant son, Kayden.

Also killed in the collision was the limo driver, Mark Gay, 44, of Lawrenceville.

Falleen Randle, wife to Demetrius and mother of Whitney and Alex, said that upon returning home "he saw the pictures of the kids, and our grandbaby and he's sad that they're gone."

"Reality has set in a little more," she said when reached by phone at home Tuesday.

Demetrius Randle didn't realize that his two children and grandson had been killed until about a week ago, when his wife finally shared the dreadful news.

"He just put his head down and shook his head and said "they're gone, they're gone,'" she said.

Still, the family members are pleased with the progress that Demetrius is making. After being ejected from the limo, he sustained damage to the frontal lobe of the brain which affected his short-term memory, communication and coordination.

As recently as a few weeks ago, he couldn't talk, walk, sit or stand. Yet now he has regained the ability to converse and is working on getting around with a wheelchair.

Relatives hope that continued outpatient therapy will help him walk on his own again one day.

"As time goes by and his memory continues to get stronger, his body is slowly catching up with his mind," said his sister-in-law, Sulianna Chandler.

An arraignment hearing is set for Aug. 1 for Carmon Cody Rhoden, the 20-year-old mechanic from Gainesville accused of causing the wreck by driving at high speeds and weaving through traffic.

Rhoden is being held without bond at the Gwinnett jail. He faces four counts of first-degree homicide by vehicle, along with two counts of serious injury by vehicle and five counts of failure to stop at or return to the scene of an accident.