It’s a gift from God
Tragic Ariel’s ma to have baby
THERE IS Christmas joy for the still-grieving parents of Ariel Russo, the 4-year-old girl killed by an unlicensed driver in an Upper West Side crash — they are expecting a baby.
“I knew right away it was a gift from God,” Sofia Russo, 27, told the Daily News on Monday.
“I feel so blessed that God would send us another child,” she said. “We felt, let . . . God’s will happen. If God knows we’re ready, we’ll get pregnant.”
Russo is 18 weeks pregnant with a delivery date in May — a month before the one-year anniversary of Ariel’s tragic death.
On June 4, the cherubic little girl was walking to school with her grandmother on W. 97th St. near Amsterdam Ave. when a teen fleeing the police in his parents’ SUV lost control of the speeding vehicle, jumped the curb and crushed both of them. The grandmother was seriously injured but survived.
Sofia and Alan Russo are spending Christmas with their son, Jacob, 3, at a relative’s home in Virginia. The holiday season is fraught with painful memories of their beloved child who was taken from them so soon.
“I remember last Christmas like it was yesterday,” said Alan Russo, 28. “I took Ariel to see Santa at Macy’s. It’s a really tough time now.”
His struggle to cope with the loss colors his feelings about the future. “I’m scared of something happening again (to their new child),” he acknowledged.
Sofia said the baby growing inside gives her strength and hope that she wants to share with others who may be suffering during the Christmas season.
She made the decision to go public after hearing about the death of an 8-year-old boy crushed under the wheels of a tractor-trailer in Queens on Friday and the killing of a 3-year-old boy by his crazed father who threw him off the roof of an Upper West Side high-rise on Sunday.
“There’s so much fear and tragedy, this is my hope to share,” she said.
The Russos’ lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said they are also looking forward to W. 97th St. being renamed Ariel Russo Way next year. “It’s so nice for this family, who suffered such a horrible tragedy, to have this wonderful news, especially during the holiday season,” Rubenstein said.
Their son Jacob misses his sister dearly and has been told another sibling is on the way. They do not yet know the gender of the baby.
The Russos did not put up a Christmas tree in their uptown apartment this year. “When I go to the store and I see the Barbies and the Baby Alive and all Ariel’s favorite things, I shed tears for her,” Sofia said.
“Ariel loved babies so much,” she recalled. “In the park she’d go up to infants and very young children and touch their faces and their hands, she was so gentle. “I know what whatever Ariel is doing in heaven, she’s taking care of babies.”
The Russo family has filed a wrongful death suit, and criminal charges are still pending against 17-year-old driver Franklin Reyes, who had taken the SUV without his parents’ permission.