Family remembers nurse killed in collision
HOUSTON Sunday morning she was driving to work on South Main near Hillcroft when a car veered into her lane and hit her head-on. There was a lot lost in the early Sunday morning accident. For one family, it was a dear mother, grandmother, nurse who always was willing to do something for someone else.
"Every time I think about her, I can't believe it. Can't believe it at all," Stan Augustin said. The tears are real for Stan Augustin, but the news of the loss of her mother just doesn't seem like it could be. "What''s the reason for this," she said. "And the only thing, for me, that I can come up with is that God needed her." Gertha Augustin, 52, was always giving whether it was to her grandchildren. "She was a great grandmother, and I know they're gonna miss her," Stan Augustin said Augustin was working as a nurse at MD Anderson and helping her extended family back home in Haiti, especially after the January earthquake "She always said, 'You never know when you're gonna need somebody else; you never know when you are gonna need somebody; you never know what difference you can make,'" Stan Augustin said. Gertha Augustin was on her way to work in the Medical Center early Sunday morning when police say a car driven by 17-year-old Tobi Oyedeji crossed the median and struck her vehicle. Oyedeji was a senior and star basketball player at Bellaire High School. "I don't care if he is a basketball star," Stan Augustin said. "My mom was a nursing star; she was a superstar of a mom, a superstar of a grandma, a superstar of a friend." Stan says she thought she had more years of learning from her mom and her children had more days with their grandmother. "You never know if you have tomorrow, seriously," Stan Augustin said. But this grieving daughter says her mother made the most of her yesterdays. "She didn't go trying to get world peace, but she made a difference in her small little ways, in her small little footsteps; she made a difference," Stan Augustin said.
Gertha Augustin was planning another trip to Haiti to help her family later this month. On Wednesday, the seniors from Bellaire High School's basketball team will play seniors from Yates to raise money for Oyedeji's funeral. On Monday morning, a small memorial was put up at the school for the star basketball player. The school plans on retiring his number.
