sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com
It was an especially grim day for Ellsworth firefighters Thursday, when they had to pull Mary Watkins from the wreckage of a violent accident that killed Watkins and four others.
Watkins, 43, was well-known in her community, where she prepared 7- and 8-year-olds for First Holy Communion at her Roman Catholic parish for more than two decades.
"The firemen just couldn't handle it when they saw it was Mary. It was terrible," said Sister Martha Thomas Baier of Ave Maria Parish in Ellsworth. "She was a very giving person."
A prayer service for children of the church and their parents will be held at 6 p.m. Monday at Ave Maria School.
Watkins was a passenger in a van transporting nine residents and two staff members of a group home for the mentally ill that was struck broadside by a tractor-trailer on Route 136. The group was en route to the Pittsburgh Zoo when the driver, Sheryl Maiolini, 53, of Charleroi, pulled into the path of the truck from Brownlee Road in Somerset Township.
Sherry Hora, who graduated with Maiolini in 1972 from Belle Vernon High School, also worked with her for a number of years in the same real estate office. Because they both went by Sherry, Hora called herself Sherry No. 1 and Maiolini Sherry No. 2.
"She would do really funny off-the-wall things. She was crazy. She was quirky. I have a million stories to tell about her, everyone does," Hora said.
Maiolini's mother, Betty Nash of Monessen, spoke to her daughter the night before. Sheryl was supposed to work the 3-to-11 night shift, she said, but changed her schedule because she wanted to take the clients to the zoo.
"I'm just devastated," Nash said, who lost her other child, a son, 14 months ago.
Maiolini was very involved with church and attended services four times a week. She often talked to her clients about God and led them in prayer.
"She was a big instrument of God's to a lot of people in her life. I know she was to me. We were very, very close," Nash said.
The trucker, Stephen Rouse, 44, of Uhrichville, Ohio, suffered minor injuries when his rig slammed the van into the side of a concrete-block warehouse.
Maiolini was killed upon impact, along with Watkins, John Maise, 61, Richard Paquet, 43, and Julia Hugus, 41.
Paquet was a 1983 graduate of Trinity High School and an avid fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Dallas Cowboys.
"He was one swell fellow. He was my favorite nephew," his aunt, Sarah Broad, said Friday. She said Paquet had suffered from mental health problems since high school. He had lived at the Bentleyville group home for years, she said, and "he really liked it there."
Hugus attended AMI Inc. in Washington, which issued the statement, "She will be very missed," Friday. The nine staff members were too grief-stricken to speak further.
Crisis counselors were summoned Thursday night to Ellsworth Fire Department after the mangled van was removed from the accident scene.
"The younger firemen didn't handle it real well," said Rawl Harris, a member of the department, when he stopped Friday at a local convenience store where the victims had frequented.
"They're like family to us," said Carleen Jones, manager of the Sunoco station a few blocks from where the victims lived and worked at the Mental Health Association of Washington County group home in Bentleyville.
Moving on from the accident was not expected to be easy for the residents who already were suffering from mental health problems.
"Even though the patients are mentally handicapped, they understand what happened," Jones said.
A survivor, Kim Sickels, 58, had someone from the home drive him to the store after he was released from the hospital "so we'd know he's OK," she said.
Jones has a plastic container on the counter for donations toward five benches that will be placed at the group home in memory of those who died.
"Please pray for our injured friends, as well as our deceased ones as they try to cope with this tragedy," Jones wrote on a sign at the door to the business on Main Street.
"We took it real hard," said Jimmy Dennis, 25, as he entered the store. He said his neighbors are related to the Watkins family.
The flag was at half-staff Friday at the group home that opened two years ago where Spring Street dead ends.
Its director, Lynne Loresch, said the six other residents who were injured in the accident are expected to survive.
"We have reason to be thankful," Loresch said.
"This place is like a family. This family needs time to heal."
Staff writer Christie Campbell contributed to this story.