Fam tries to cope after road tragedy
A Bronx family is reeling — and seeking ray of hope — after a car crash killed the beloved matriarch of their family and left her husband fighting to survive on a hospital ventilator.
Juan Rosario, 81, was unconscious on Wednesday, unaware that his 74-year-old wife, Hilda, had died in Monday’s crash.
Rosario was driving hiss 1999 Lincoln Town Car onn Allerton Ave. in Baychesterr when he had an apparentt medical episode and struck a Chevy Suburban near E. Gunn Hill Road about 4 p.m. Mon-day, cops said.
A vehicle behind thee crashed Suburban attemptedd to swerve to the right butt struck the SUV’s passengerr side.
“We will never cope withh this tragedy,” said Maria Eas-ter Rosario, Juan Rosario’ss 48-year-old daughter. “Octo-ber 26th will be the worst dayy of our lives.”
Hilda and Juan Rosarioo met in Philadelphia and wed in Puerto Rico 45 years ago. Juan Rosario worked in maintenance for CBS, and survived a string of ailments — diabetes, high blood pressure, prostate cancer, two minor strokes and kidney failure. He remains hospitalized at Jacobi Medical Center, where only one family member can visit at a time.
Relatives described Hilda Rosario as the glue that held their family together. The couple had planned to spend their remaining days in Puerto Rico, and had hoped to travel there in April before the pandemic hit. “She was always in the cooking, making something,” said Christina Rosario, 27, their granddaughter. Rosario moved in with her grandparents when she was 6 months old, and they raised her as if she was their own child.
“She made me a more respectful person, and she was my best friend,” Christina Rosario said.
Their grandson, Jose Estrada, 26, said he plans to remember their lives, and not dwell on the crash.
“”Even though I have a father, he is my father figure,” Estrada said of Juan Rosario.