LAYTON, Utah — It’s a phone call nobody wants to receive.
“My sister had called me and told me that she had passed away, that she didn't make it,” Lauren Paskett said through tears.
Paskett is helping her sister Angela pick up the pieces after she lost her little girl on Friday. Paskett said Angela went to the car wash and her children were in a playground area with a gate. She said 2-year-old Ada wanted her mom, so her 4-year-old sister opened the gate.
They started walking hand in hand when a truck came, hitting Ada.
“Her sister said that she was holding her hand, and she tried to stop it, and she said she couldn’t, he didn’t see, but she tried to put her hands up and say stop," Paskett said.
Ada was flown to a nearby hospital, where she later died.
Paskett said this is not the first tragedy that has hit her family.
“It's been easier knowing that she's with her dad, because he did pass away two years before that,” Paskett said.
Angela’s husband died in 2023, and Paskett said her sister was just getting back on her feet.
She said Angela has endured a lot of hateful comments since the accident and wants people not to pass blame.
“The negative comments don't bring her back,” Paskett said. " It’s not going to take away the pain from my sister or the driver or the rest of our family.”
When it comes to the 18-year-old driver who hit Ada, Paskett wants him to know he is forgiven.
“It will go with him the rest of his life, and it's not his fault. He can't blame himself. It was just a tragedy — wrong place, wrong time,” Paskett said.
She said she wishes the gate was taller so the kids would not have been able to reach it. Even amidst the pain, however, Paskett leans on Ada’s memory to keep moving forward.
“She was quite literally everybody's baby, and we just loved and cherished her. She is so sweet,” she said through tears.
The family has started a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral expenses.
