FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A Treasure Coast couple is working to make a difference when it comes to senseless deaths on the road, a year after their daughter was killed in a head-on collision on Super Bowl Sunday 2021.
Timothy and Melanie Trewyn visited Old Fort Park in Fort Pierce on Monday, not for the view, but to review what they've gone through in the past year.
"Doesn't feel like it's been a year. No," Melanie Trewyn said.
Their adopted daughter, Claudia Trewyn Bradley, 32, married with an 11-month old at the time, was heading north on Indian River Drive just before the park entrance on Feb. 7, 2021.
"Was on her way to pick up a pizza for her family — and she never made it," Trewyn said.
Claudia was struck head-on by a suspected drunk driver, Ryan Hester, the 19-year-old son of the St. Lucie County chief deputy.
"I want to wake up and, 'Oh, there she is. It was a bad dream.' But it's not a bad dream," Timothy Trewyn said.
For this retired teacher, it was a lesson in grief she did not want to learn, but one she now shares with others.
"We want to use our remembrance to help change the culture," Melanie Trewyn said.
Now the couple, working with the Fort Pierce Lions Club and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is building support for a future memorial at the park for all victims of drinking and driving.
The Trewyns don't want it to be a distraction for drivers, but a visible reminder that something happened here.
"And the things that happened are that people's lives get cut short," Timothy Trewyn said.
Working under the banner "Remember For Change," they also plan to pass out coasters to local establishments that remind people not to drink and drive, and at the same time, reminding the couple to keep moving forward.
"We don't want to feel helpless. That's when people begin to get depressed, when they begin to feel helpless," Melanie Trewyn said. "This is the ministry, but certainly not the one I would have chosen."
