The day your baby is born is supposed to be one of the magical days of your life. But for a ather in Anaheim, California, that's hardly the case. That's because the day his first child was born is also the day that he lost his wife in a tragic car accident due to an alleged drunk driver.
James Alvarez and his pregnant wife, Yesenia Aguilar, just 23 years old, were out walking and talking about curtain rods, he told Today. But that was the last conversation he would ever have with his wife. Just moments later, after a driver lost control of her SUV, Yesenia was lying on the pavement, fighting for her life.
"We were on our evening walk and she was like, 'So, do you think single or double rods would work better?'" James said. "By the time we saw the car coming towards us, it was too late."
This story originally appeared on LittleThings in August 2020.
James tried desperately to save his wife. He performed CPR on her before she was rushed to the hospital. "I remember looking at my wife laying there and thinking 'This is a nightmare. Let me wake up. Please let me wake up now,'" he said.
Sadly, the pregnant 23-year-old wouldn't wake up. She died at UCI Medical Center from her injuries. But doctors worked quickly and were able to save the baby, who was just five weeks from her estimated due date. The couple's daughter, Adalyn Rose, was delivered after an emergency C-section on August 11.
James' baby is still in the neonatal intensive care unit. But he says she is now breathing on her own. In what was likely an amazing moment for the grieving husband, he was able to hold his baby for the first time on Monday.
It's truly incredible that doctors were able to successfully deliver the baby even though James' wife didn't make it. Still, he will always have the heartbreaking memory of losing his wife on the very day his daughter was born.
"My daughter's birthday is the same day I lost my wife and that just tears me up," he said.
A car accident resulting in a death is always a terrible tragedy. When it's a totally preventable tragedy, that makes the loss even more senseless. It seems like that may be the case in the death of Yesenia Aguilar. Courtney Fritz Pandolfi was the driver behind the wheel of the car that took the young mother-to-be's life. She was allegedly drunk driving and has since been charged with murder.
Even more damning is that Pandolfi was not a first-time offender. According to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, she had three prior DUI convictions. It's incredibly tough to hear that the driver had been repeating the same dangerous behavior over and over that eventually led to a baby losing her mother before ever getting to meet her.
"This is beyond shocking and it is absolutely reprehensible. There is no reason why a 23-year-old mother is dead and her daughter will grow up without ever seeing her mother smile or hearing her voice," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told Today in a written statement. "This was 100 percent preventable. This woman knew the consequences of driving under the influence and she did it anyway."
For dad James, it definitely has to be a time of immense transitions. He'd been planning for his new baby's arrival for months, but he didn't expect to be raising his daughter alone. Now he will have to learn how to be a single parent, all while grieving his wife's tragic and untimely death.
Still, he says that his new baby is his reason to keep going on. "There are no words for how much I miss my wife. She was my world," he said. "But I have to be strong for our daughter, she's a miracle. I have to [keep fighting] for her."
James is holding onto memories of his wife, ones that he will surely tell his daughter about one day. He says she was the "happiest and most loving woman." It's unthinkable that she never got to share that love with her child.
A small funeral will be held for Yesenia today.
