Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A family finds solace from tragedy
Hundreds reach out to help after fatal accident
March 20 had gone like many Mondays for the May family. For most families with two teenage girls, really.
Courtney, 16, a junior at Cardinal Gibbons, had a track meet in Lauderdale Lakes in the afternoon. Jenn, 14, busy with her travel club soccer team, needed a ride home from practice around the same time.
Their father, John May, a cross country and track coach who volunteers at Cardinal Gibbons, was helping out at the same conference qualifier at Boyd Anderson High School where Courtney was competing.
Their mother had everything worked out. Elaine May, 50, would leave work early to catch Courtney’s race, then leave the track meet to pick up Jenn.
John May choked back tears as he talked about March 20, the day Elaine, his wife of 19 years, was killed in a car crash.
Courtney had been nursing a sore hip, but went ahead and ran in the 4x800 relay, the first track event of that sunny afternoon. Though her relay team qualified for the final, Courtney was disappointed in her own performance.
After the race, Elaine May made her way to the field to find Courtney, to congratulate her — and console her — before she left to pick up Jenn.
Afterward, as she headed toward the car, she turned to give Courtney one last bit of encouragement.
“By the way, your butt looks awesome in those shorts.”
Within what seemed like a short few minutes, John’s phone rang.
It was Jenn. They’d been in an accident. “Are you OK?” She said she was OK. She sounded intense.
She said, “I think Mom’s gone.”
And the phone went dead.
The violent crash on West Commerical Boulevard on March 20 killed Elaine May instantly.
Jenn was left seriously injured.
The impact had pushed her stomach up into her chest cavity, causing a lung to collapse and tearing her abdomen, diaphragm and other internal organs. And along with cracked ribs, her pelvis was fractured front and back.
Fort Lauderdale police have concluded their investigation of the crash; the state attorney’s office has not yet filed charges in the case.
A first responder at the crash site, where Commercial crossed Northwest 15th Street, had Jenn’s phone. He reached John May by hitting the redial.
Just over 2 miles away, May got a lift from a fellow coach. By the time they reached the accident scene, Elaine’s mangled Nissan Maxima was partially covered with a yellow tarp.
Police and emergency workers were everywhere, as were pieces of the two cars — Elaine’s and the Infiniti G35 she collided with.
Jenn had been transported to the hospital, where she would remain in intensive care for 10 days.
John May never realized that a personal tragedy would be so revelatory.
“Sometimes we look around and think we live in this really cynical world,” he said, “and then something like this happens.”
Many people in the Cardinal Gibbons community and beyond, even coaches from rival schools, reached out to help — holding bake sales, cleaning their home, and starting a GoFundMe page to help defray Jenn’s medical costs and help cover Courtney’s and Jenn’s college educations.
“The one real positive is just the way everybody has come together,” May said. “Getting emails, letters and calls from people like Paul Bauer, the coach at Pine Crest, one of our cross country rivals, asking what they could do to help.”
Athletes at Cardinal Gibbons and at Fort Lauderdale Select, where Jenn plays for the 14-Under team, have paid tribute as the girls recover.
“Kids at school wrote Jenn’s initials on their cleats,” May said. “Lacrosse players wrote on their lacrosse sticks and helmets and they also started a Pray for May group and made wristbands.”
A commercial artist, Elaine had managed branding at AutoNation — and many of her colleagues from around the country have lent support.
In two months since the accident, that GoFundMe page has generated $131,575 through 541 donations, which far exceeded the goal of $100,000.
“People from every aspect and avenue of our lives,” May said. “That part of the whole thing has been humbling. “It’s unbelievable, really.” Jenn missed the last half of the soccer season, but was cleared last month to shift from a walker to crutches. She hopes to stop using the crutches this week.
“She is eager to get back normal 14-year-old athletic activities — to anything and everything,” John said.
Courtney, he said, is strong, “all positive.”
“Emotionally, both of them are just so resilient,” May said. “It has blown me away.”
Courtney delivered the eulogy at Elaine May’s funeral and shared the story of her final moments with her mother.
Those last funny, encouraging words she’d said to Courtney had picked her up when she needed it.
Rather than feeling sad, Courtney wanted to take the baton her mother had handed her and find cause for celebration.
“The one real positive is just the way everybody has come together.” John May