On a serene Sunday evening at Los Cerritos Park, candles, altars and three new trees honored a young family whose lives were lost in a tragic crash last year on Halloween.
The beloved 30-year-old Joseph Awaida, his 32-year-old wife, Raihan Dakhil, and their 3-year-old son, Omar, who were killed by a suspected drunk driver, live on through the memories of relatives and friends in the neighborhood and across the city.
On Sunday, the community—candles in hand—followed the same path the three walked a year ago on Halloween night when they went trick-or-treating from a home on Chestnut Avenue near San Antonio Drive, around Los Cerritos Park.
At the Chestnut Avenue home, organizers built a large altar, displaying a video of the family on a projector screen. The streets were adorned with white paper bags with candles within, also illuminating the path. Upon arriving at the park, attendees left gifts on another altar and under three newly planted olive trees near where the family was struck.
Afterward, city officials and community leaders thanked the attendees. Some voiced their continued pain—still questioning how this could have happened.
“Why [did] they leave early?” said Tarek Mohamed, chairman of the Long Beach Islamic Center. “I, every day, am asking myself, ‘Who’s God?'”
Maribel Contreas, a classmate of Dakhil’s from graduate school, reminisced about bonding with her over being part of “the mom squad” and having study dates and play dates together.
“She just taught me a lot within our short two-year friendship,” Contreas said. “We vented a lot about the same issues in motherhood because our children were the same age. That’s something that I really, really miss when I’m having a hard time in my motherhood role.”
Dakhil wanted to be a social worker, Contreas added.
Patty Cunningham, Awaida’s aunt, wore large pins with the faces of the family. As she received condolences from neighbors, her eyes began to water.
“God only takes the best,” she said.
