Point Reyes Light - November 13, 2003

A Reporter's Notebook by Ana Carolina Monterroso

Point Reyes & the Telles García family

Several years ago, Chileno Valley residents Guadalupe and Salvador García took over raising their grandchildren Luis, Víctor, Gabby, Marisol, Juan, and Angela Telles. As West Marin School students, the children became part of various Point Reyes Station organizations, as well as many people’s lives. Other families embraced the children as "their own."

Friday, however, it was West Marin School principal Jim Patterson’s painful task to inform his students that their classmate Gabby Telles, a fourth grader, had died that morning in a car accident on the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road.

Gabriela’s younger sister Marisol, who had been severely injured in the crash, was hospitalized as was her grandmother, Guadalupe García, who had been driving. On Monday, Marisol died at Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

This week, both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking households in Point Reyes Station were sharing the grief and pain of the García-Telles family.

In school, "we have talked about Gabby and Marisol’s characteristics, what each one of them means for us, how we remember them," noted Fred Gilardi, the girls’ fourth-grade teacher. "Children have cried. We have also laughed, remembering happy times with the girls.

Memorial at West Marin School

"We are preparing a garden in their memory because that makes us feel better, and we will exhibit it in the class window," added Gilardi.

"Gabby came on the first school day to show me her new haircut even if she was no longer my student," remembers Nancy Coulson, who teaches a second-and-third-grade combination class. "Her beautiful and warm smile and her enthusiasm to learn will remain as a beautiful memory...Gabby and Marisol were very, very close. They were best friends."

"Marisol loved to draw mermaids and princesses in beautiful dresses," recalled Sue Gonzalez, also a teacher of the Second/Third Combination class. "She inspired her classmates to do the same. Because of her, we started making class collages of the drawings.

"A sample of her artistic talent can be seen in one of the four cards of the Desserts collection sold by our school to raise funds," Gonzalez added.

Townspeople volunteering help

At the Point Reyes Station-based Community Resources Center, as well as at the town’s Health and Human Services Center, Rosalyn Miller and Lourdes Romo reported that on Monday and Tuesday their phones rang continually, with numerous people expressing concern for Guadalupe García and her family.

"Everyone wants to help," said Romo. "All sorts of offerings have been made to continue supporting the family.

"The Telles children have had a very deep connection with the Point Reyes Community since they moved to the region to live with their grandmother and her family," Romo noted.

"Guadalupe is a hard-working woman who, together with her husband Salvador and daughter Lupita, give everything for the children."

Like other townspeople, Miller described García as "a remarkable woman and a pillar of her family. It is impossible to express the pain we all feel."

Eva Avalos, who works at West Marin Pharmacy, on Wednesday said. the prayers of many people will help the family. "The result of all this sad and painful situation will be positive," she added, "because all the community has been, and remains, close to Doña Lupe and her family."

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