‘One tragic thing after the other’

Elizabeth Polo was a pastor. Daniel Polo was her youngest son.

They were killed Tuesday in a head-on collision on Glades Road, minutes from the Baptist church where Elizabeth, 66, once worked alongside her husband, David, also a pastor.

The Polos were a family that gave and gave, their friends say. But over the past few years, they had struggled a great deal, according to Sara Zivkovic, a friend of the surviving family members who spoke on their behalf.

David Polo died of complications from COVID-19 about two years ago. Elizabeth Polo recently had been diagnosed with serious health issues. And in September, her son and Daniel’s brother, a Palm Beach County firefighter also named David, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

“It’s just been one tragic thing after the other, unfortunately,” Zivkovic said.

Then, on Tuesday, the mother and her youngest son were driving toward the entrance to Florida’s Turnpike on Glades Road when another driver “failed to negotiate the curve in the roadway,” mounted the median, crossed into the eastbound lanes and collided with their car head-on, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.

The driver, Alexander Spandau, 29, was hospitalized with serious injuries. Family members of Spandau declined to comment Thursday.

Elizabeth Polo was pronounced dead on scene. Daniel Polo, 36, who was driving, died at the hospital.

“This is just so hard to comprehend,” said Noelia Wiegand, another friend of the family. “And I guess my way of thinking is just to not try to make sense of it.”

Wiegand’s family joined the Polos’ church, Boca Glades Hispanic Baptist Church, after moving to Boca Raton from Argentina. The church is mostly made up of immigrants, she said, often their first and only source of community upon arriving in the United States.

“They helped countless families start over, including mine,” Wiegand said.

Wiegand grew up with the Polo sons, Daniel, Ricardo (“Ricky”), and David, in the church’s youth group and Spanish River High, which they all attended together. Three years younger than Daniel, she was the baby of the group. She would spend her summers with the sons at the youth group summer camp, where Elizabeth Polo was the chaperone.

“She was a second mom,” Wiegand said. She would give the kids career tips and accompany them on piano while they sang during karaoke nights. When Wiegand’s older sister and her now-husband broke up at one point during high school, Elizabeth Polo helped her write him a love letter.

Daniel Polo was a “giant teddy bear,” said Zivkovic, who also grew up with the brothers in the church youth group.

She met the Polos over two decades ago, she said, after she and her family immigrated to the U.S. from Paraguay. The Polos would buy her family groceries and pick her up from school.

Daniel Polo was a jokester with a serious side, Wiegand recalled. He would play pranks at church, hiding in corners and jumping out at people.

Recently, Daniel Polo was living at home, helping out his mom, Wiegand said.

“My thought is, [Elizabeth] finally has peace, they’re both resting, they’re happy,” she said. The most difficult portion is for the people that remain, the people that are still here, that miss them.”