Point Reyes Light - November 13, 2003
Services slated for crash victims
By Larken Bradley
Gabriela and Marisol Telles were both born in September, just one year and two weeks apart. At West Marin School they sat together in Mr. Gilardi’s fourth-grade class where they were proud of their schoolwork. Wherever 10-year-old Gabriela went, Marisol, age nine, followed.
"She always wanted to be next to her," one of the girls’ uncles said, which is how family members are consoling themselves after Marisol’s death on Monday, three days after Gabriela was killed when their grandmother and guardian, Guadalupe Garcia, with four grandchildren in the car, skidded off a rain-slick road in Point Reyes Station, smashing into a utility pole.
Smiles like the sun
"Gabriela had a smile like the radiance of the sun," reflected her teacher, Fred Gilardi. Her smile belied the difficulties she and her five siblings withstood during their young lives, and the tragic deaths that awaited Gabriela and her sister.
More than two years ago, the girls’ maternal grandparents, Salvador and Guadalupe Garcia, became legal guardians of the six Telles children whose parents’ struggles with drugs and alcohol had consumed their lives. Their father, Juan Telles, remains in jail in Modesto.
Born in Modesto on Sept. 3, 1993, Gabriela Telles, who was called Gabby, loved to play soccer. On game days she became so excited that by 7 a.m. she was dressed in her uniform for a late morning match. "Okay, I’m ready to go," she would announce to her family hours before the game was set to start.
Marisol Telles, whose nickname was Chole, was born on Sept. 16, 1994, also in Modesto, where her grandparents, migrant farm workers, lived for a while after immigrating from Michoacan, Mexico.
One outgoing, the other quiet
A little quieter than her outgoing older sister, and not as interested in sports, she was "more grown up," remarked her aunt, Claudia Garcia.
Both girls adored cats and dogs and helped raise money for Planned Feralhood in Point Reyes Station. When a visitor recently brought several pug dogs to school to show the students, the girls "went crazy with delight," laughed Mr. Gilardi.
They are survived by their grandparents, Guadalupe and Salvador Garcia of Chileno Valley; parents, Maria Garcia Telles and Juan Telles of Modesto; brothers, Luis Telles; Victor Telles; and Juan Telles; sister, Angela Telles, all of Chileno Valley; two maternal aunts; and three maternal uncles.
A Rosary will take place 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17. A Funeral Mass will be held at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Olema, with the funeral to follow at Olema Cemetery.
A memorial fund has been established at Bank of Petaluma, Attn: Garcia-Telles fund, PO Box 100, Point Reyes Station, 94956.