N.J. Mother Pens Her Grief After Local Teen Is Killed By State Trooper Vehicle

There are lot of parents in Westfield, N.J. right now who are just like Josie Varga, and who find themselves hugging their children, shedding tears.

The children are coming to grips with the death of a 13-year-old girl, a freshman at Westfield High School. And not all of them know Terry DiFalco, either.

But after hearing about the tragedy, and learning about Terry, they feel like they know her now. And now they're all sharing in the mourning of a girl, and a community that's having a hard time making sense of it all.

Terry DiFalco, a freshman at Westfield High School who was active in school plays, was identified as the teen who was killed this past weekend by a state trooper's vehicle. She was playing in a scavenger hunt that was organized by kids in the theater program.

Varga, a mother who lives a few blocks from the crash site, said her daughters attended a candlelight vigil this week at the high school, held in Terry’s memory. Hundreds gathered on the front lawn in the bitter cold, she said, to console each other and remember a girl whose life "was taken far too soon."

"Erica and Lia were both shaken up when they came home," she wrote on her blog. "Erica sent out a text message to family and friends telling them how much she loved them.

"When I received her text, I went up to her room to find her sobbing and held her in my arms."

New Jersey State Police have not commented on the matter, and the Union County Prosecutor's Office has offered few details since the Saturday accident.

In the meantime, and as the community awaits more details, people have paid tribute on social media, and they've laid flowers at the scene of the accident, on the 1800 block of Central Avenue, as a way to deal with their grief.

Superintendent Margaret Dolan spoke about the tragedy, saying "words cannot adequately describe the sorrow we feel upon the tragic loss last evening of one of our Westfield High School freshmen.” Grief counselors were supposed to be at the high school on Monday.

"Let’s face it, kids their age don’t often think about death nor should they," Varga said on her blog. "In their young minds, they are invincible. They have their whole life to live. That is until something tragic like this happens."

Services have been announced. Visitation hours will be Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. at the Higgins and Bonner Echo Lake Funeral in Westfield, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial on Thursday at 11 a.m. at the St. Helen RC Church in Westfield.

Varga's youngest daughter, Lia, took to Instagram to relay what she considered an important message to her friends. She had deleted the Instagram app for a bit, but wanted to download it again to share her feelings about Terry.

"What really matters is the people you get to love, and the way you change their lives. Terry might not have lived long, but in her 13 years I know this is one thing she succeeded in," she wrote.

"At the vigil tonight so many people showed up and it proved how many people loved her and how many lives she’s touched. And that, that’s what really counts."

You can read the whole blog here.

Photo courtesy of Higgins and Bonner Echo Lake Funeral Home