Three small white caskets with two larger ones on either side lined the front of Templo Sulamita, where mourners Monday night remembered a College Station family killed in a recent car accident.
It was standing-room only as the more than 200 family members, friends, co-workers and strangers packed into the small church in Bryan, many hoping to make sense of how the lives of two parents and their three young children were taken without warning five days earlier.
Ismael Perez, 41, Minerva Perez, 37, Josefina Perez, 4, Celeste Perez, 5, and Jeanette Perez, 7, died on Old San Antonio Road near Normangee when another driver traveling westbound crossed the center line and slammed into the family's oncoming vehicle.
That driver, Amy Wise, 28, was taken by helicopter to St. Joseph Regional Health Center in Bryan on Thursday and remained in fair condition there Monday. No citations have been issued, but officials said they're still investigating the accident.
Monday evening wasn't about ascribing blame though -- it was about finding comfort in memories.
Family members from Mexico, Kansas, Michigan and parts of Texas traveled to Bryan to attend the funeral at Templo Sulamita, which the Perez family started attending more than a year ago.
Ismael Perez worked as a mechanic, and Minerva Perez cleaned offices part time while caring for her daughters, all of whom attended Southwood Valley Elementary School. The youngest child was in the Head Start Program, the middle child was in kindergarten and the oldest was a second-grader.
At the front of the church, an array of brightly colored flowers draped the caskets. On top of each were pictures of the tight-knit family.
"I was the first one to get the bad news," Pastor Enrique Hernandez told those at the funeral. "I wanted to disappear. I thought it was a nightmare and I wished I could wake up. But I knew better. It was real."
Hernandez told loved ones not to worry, because he knew the Perez family well and they were in a much better place.
"All we can do is live in the good memories," he said. "I was sick about two weeks ago and guess who were the first to visit me? Ismael and Minerva," he said. "She was so worried about me. That's the kind of people they were, caring people."
Epifania Rivera, Ismael Perez's sister who drove in from Kansas on Friday, said she was in pain but found comfort in knowing her brother had made amends in the past year.
"I remember the first day he called me and said, 'I want to be a better father, a better husband,'" she said. "We are hurt, but we know he's in heaven."
Santos Pimentel, secretary of the church, said she and Minerva Perez had become close friends.
"Minerva was a blessing for me. She was a hard-working woman," Pimentel said as she fought back tears. "Every time I asked her for something, she was willing. We're going to miss her a lot."
Judy Roebuck also met the family through church and said she had become close with Minerva Perez and the daughters. She said she and the girls would play the tambourine together during Wednesday night services and had done so the night before the accident.
"Less than 24 hours later they were gone forever," she said in disbelief.
The daughters were sweet and compassionate, she said, and they loved cats.
"They always played with kitties," she said. "The girls loved on them and the cats ate it up."
The parents of Ismael and Minerva Perez sat quietly as other family members who spoke thanked the Bryan-College Station community for their support. Teachers from Southwood Valley Elementary School and other College Station school officials attended the services.
The Perez family will be buried in Mexico, where Minerva and Ismael Perez were born.
Donations to fund funeral and burial costs can be made to Templo Sulamita church, First Victoria National Bank in College Station or the Hillier Funeral Home.
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