» First funeral will be Sunday
ATHENS — This is the time of year when the University of Georgia catches its breath before that final academic sprint, final exams. But that sprint is on hold, at least until the tears stop and the wreath atop the university’s famed Arch comes down.
Until then, people here will pause and remember the four: Kayla Leigh Canedo, 19; Brittany Katherine Feldman, 20; Christina Devon Semeria, 19; and Halle Grace Scott, 19. Friends in life, they're forever united in death. They were killed in a two-car crash Wednesday night.
A fifth student, Agnes Yena Kim, 21, of Snellville, remained in critical condition Saturday at Athens Regional Medical Center. Police say she drove the car that struck another eight miles west of here. The other car's driver, who made a harrowing 911 call moments after the wreck, was treated and released.
For Athens, a town defined by the big university, the shock of the loss has rippled from classrooms to sidewalks to downtown stores and beyond. Everybody, it seems, either knew the young women, or knew someone who did.
Brandon Blair chalked his cue stick and sighed. He’s a junior from Augusta, 20, majoring in real estate. He recently transferred from Georgia Southern, which a year ago reeled from its own tragedy: the deaths of five nursing students, killed in a crash not far from Savannah. He was there when students held candles and wept.
“It’s a sadder atmosphere,” said Blair, lining up a shot on a pool table at the Tate Student Center. He likes a few morning rounds of eight-ball before going to class. “It impacts the whole university on a large scale.”
Emma Smithson, an Atlanta resident — Paideia, class of ’13 — believes the deaths touched a deep well of grief.
“It’s extremely saddening,” said Smithson, 21 and a junior majoring in international affairs. Friday morning found her taking time between classes at the student center. “Everyone has been really affected by this, even if they didn’t know them.”
The deaths, she said, prompted students — friends and strangers — to share their sorrow. From that sharing comes cohesiveness, she said.
And from that, strength.
“It’s given everybody a chance to come together,” said Smithson. “To know that they’re not alone.”
Petals in the wind
Police are still investigating why the two cars collided just before 9 on Wednesday night.
Their query began a few miles west of Watkinsville, a picturesque city where enterprising merchants have converted old storefronts into antique shops and other businesses designed to induce travelers to pull over. The crash site is on Ga. 15, a patched two-lane where the speed limit is 55 mph.
The site Friday was marked by black skidmarks that began in the northbound lane and ended suddenly in the southbound lane. Investigators had sprayed orange paint in spots to help them understand what happened.
The Georgia State Patrol’s preliminary report said it appeared that the Toyota Camry carrying the five women had overcorrected and crossed the center line. The side of their car then slammed into the front of an oncoming Chevrolet Cobalt. Canedo, Feldman and Semeria, all sitting in the back seat, died at the scene. Halle Scott, in the front passenger’s side, died at the hospital.
On the highway’s shoulder Friday afternoon were shattered fragments of plastic — something that looked like part of a door handle, another chunk that held a brake light. Broken glass shone like diamonds in the morning sun.
In the midst of the car’s remnants rested a basket of petunias, left overnight as a roadside memorial. The petals fluttered in the wind.
The same breezes stirred in the magnolia close to the bench where Ally Toto awaited a bus to class. Across the street, a black flag hung atop the doorway of a sorority.
A member of Sigma Kappa sorority, she joined other sisters Wednesday night as news of the tragedy made the rapid jump from police calls to social media posts. The young women in her sorority wrapped arms around each and cried. And, on Thursday night, they sat to dinner and prayed for four souls recently taken wing. The victims were sorority women, too.
“Being in a sisterhood, I know how close-knit everyone is,” said Toto, a sophomore from Boston who’s majoring in public relations. “It’s been very melancholy. But people are really coming together.”
Sometimes, she admitted, her thoughts wander during prayer. "Not that time," said Toto, 20. "I listened."
A lot of people have been praying, said the Rev. Sky Pratt. He’s the student minister at Prince Avenue Baptist Church here. He’s stood at gravesides and commended the souls of college students to the Almighty before.
When the learned that four women died just west of town, said Pratt, some students gathered at Young Life, a collegiate ministry. They asked God to take the victims – and send some love their way.
“We live in a broken world, broken because of sin,” said Pratt, finishing his breakfast at the Mayflower Restaurant, an Athens institution. “So tragedy happens.
“The question I ask is, ‘What? What does God want to teach us from this?’” Pratt said.
That lesson? “People who walk through tragedy can experience the love of God,” he said. “You can’t ask why.”
‘No grades in heaven’
Something was different in Athens Thursday night. Brian Olsen noticed it right away.
“It gets pretty rowdy downtown” on Thursdays as students prepare to welcome another weekend, the finance major said. “Not this Thursday night.”
Olsen was pretty quiet, too. He knew Halle.
“When I heard about it, I said, ‘Oh my God!’” he recalled.
The two occasionally joined study groups, preparing for tests “so we could spit out our knowledge,” he said.
Hayes Buchanan knows Agnes. They met in a dining hall — he a freshman, she a sophomore. Friday afternoon, the graphic design major stood under a hardwood tree in his front yard, picking a guitar. It’s something to do when the sun is out and robins are hopping in the grass.
Agnes, he said, is an RA — a resident assistant, someone who helps keep dormitories running smoothly. And Agnes, he said, took that job seriously.
“I can remember seeing her in the dining hall, sitting with her (younger) girls,” said Buchanan, 21, who grew up in Buckhead. “She would shepherd them.”
The four are now in the care of God, said Brittney Grisham. Friday morning, the public relations and fashion merchandising major was drinking coffee, eyeing her laptop.
Thinking, too, about what really matters in life. Most students, the Cumming junior said, are worried about final exams at this time of year. So was she, until four lives ended on a highway west of town.
She finished her coffee. “I’m not going to get so stressed out,” said Grisham, 21. “There are no grades in heaven.”
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