My Daughter Was Returning to College in 8 Days—Then Police Cars Arrived

It was a typical Sunday morning. My husband and I were getting ready to start the day when multiple police cars pulled onto our driveway.

My heart sank. Our eldest son Alex had left college and was on the road to start his adult life in Colorado. I instantly thought something must have happened during the drive from our home in Boston, Massachusetts.

Panicked, I ran upstairs to our youngest son’s bedroom and begged him to call his brother while my husband, Robert, then 53, answered the door.

We were told that our daughter, Elana, had been a passenger in a fatal car crash on July 28, 2024. The driver was intoxicated by alcohol and marijuana, and both passed away at the scene.

My whole world fell apart.

She had spent that weekend with friends in Vermont. She was eight days away from returning to the University of Arkansas to begin her third year as a communications major.

In her final hours, Elana was not kept safe or protected in the way her family had done countless times while driving through the Vermont mountains. It is an unbearable pain knowing she was unable to protect herself in a place that was so special to our family, and that we will never have the chance to prevent what happened.

She had her whole life ahead of her. She had so much love to give, dreams to chase and light to share. Gone in an instant by an act that was entirely preventable.

Elana never stood a chance. The crash was so severe that she could not be identified for two weeks and was ultimately identified through dental records.

At her celebration of life, I learned just how much of an impact she had on so many people’s lives.

Three people I had never met told me that Elana had saved them from a dark place.

She was incredibly outgoing and had a unique way of bringing people together. When she was in elementary school, we nicknamed her “the town mayor” because she was always connecting people and making them feel like they mattered.

She didn’t have much money, as she worked part-time in a bakery, but she would often send friends Starbucks vouchers just because.

That was simply the type of person she was. She would do anything for anyone, including animals.

She adored her rescue golden retriever, Ollie, who we still have today.

Three months after she passed away, in October 2024, we launched Ollie’s Angels Foundation to raise awareness, in our daughter’s honor, about the irreversible consequences of impaired and reckless driving. We speak to high school students and give a presentation, talk about Elana and bring a college student to give a public service announcement as we’ve learned that younger people listen to people their age.

Ollie is also a therapy dog. Elana would bring him everywhere so we thought it’s not fair to keep him home, so now he spreads joy in memory of Elana too.

Robert came up with the slogan “Catch a Safe Ride” as a simple way to encourage people to think twice before getting behind the wheel.

This should never have happened. We cannot normalize drink- or drug-driving. We want people to think twice because you cannot undo the damage when something horrific happens.

Another message we want to share is the importance of speaking up when something doesn’t feel right. If you think someone has been drinking or is otherwise unfit to drive, take the leap and say something. It is better to risk being wrong than stay silent and have someone lose their life or suffer serious injuries.

Not every impaired-driving crash is fatal, but every one is preventable.

Driving recklessly or while impaired is not an accident. It is a crash. I want to help change the language around that because the word “accident” is so deeply embedded in our culture.

Today, I share videos on TikTok (@graceingrief) to raise awareness and show people that Elana was a real person with a real family who loves and misses her every day.

Alice Korey, 55, the founder of the non-profit organization, based in Florida, frequently shares her daughter’s story to raise awareness of the consequences of intoxicated driving.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Charlotte Nisbet and Emma Lee-Sang