MADD candlelight vigil remembers lives lost in DUI crashes

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Even the candles cried tears of wax at Saturday night's first Mothers Against Driving Drunk candlelight vigil.

The 50 people who attended were there to honor and remember family members and friends who had been killed in drunken driver-related crashes.

"It was 23 years ago, but it still feels like yesterday," Dan Smith, a Centre County resident, said of his daughter, Tammy Louise Smith, who was killed in 1985. "Something comes up every day that reminds me of her, a picture or a memory and we just think, 'God we wish she were here.' "

Smith read a poem with a repeating line that read, "don't worry Daddy's coming." The poem related how sorry Smith was that he didn't get to his daughter before she died.

Smith said it was the last time he would read the poem because it is too hard for him.

"I hope it's not the last time you ever read that poem because it's moving," said Brenda Lucasicwicz, who sang three songs.

Sylvia Davis, Lycoming County MADD coordinator, also read a poem - The Bridge You'll Never Cross - by Greenville Kleiser. Davis said she often referred to it when she needed strength after her son got into a car with a drunk driver and was killed in 1990.

Rev. John K. Manno, pastor at the Church of the Annunciation, offered his condolences to the people who were there.

"We all go into heaven together," Manno said. "Remember that. There is no past, present or future when it comes to God."

The vigil featured the DUI Moving Memorial, a trailer that holds the names of people who have been killed in DUI-related collisions.

The trailer is an extension of The DUI Victim Memorial Garden in Harrisburg. The garden was established in 2003 as a place that victims who were killed on Pennsylvania state roadways can be honored and remembered.

Crosses, representing 60 people who have lost their lives since 2001 in Lycoming County due to DUI-related crashes, were placed in the ground.

Old Lycoming Township Police Chief Bill Solomon said he has heard DUI offenders say their lives have been ruined by a DUI charge.

Solomon went on to say that people's lives are ruined by DUI, but it's not the offender's lives - it's the family members and friends of people who are killed by a drunk driver whose lives are ruined.

"How do you tell someone their son, daughter, husband, wife, brother or sister is not coming home tonight, tomorrow or ever again?" Solomon asked. "Lives are ruined by DUIs."

The theme for the evening was remembrance and hope - remembrance for lost loved ones and hope that drunk driving can be wiped out forever.