SARA GETTYS/Yakima Herald-Republic Ruby Aguilar is graduating from Heritage University with honors. She was tempted to quit school when her brother was killed in a car wreck at this intersection, at Nob Hill and 48th Ave. The wreck was caused by a car thief who was eluding police when he crashed into the car her brother and his friend were driving while . The car thief crashed into the car her brother and friend were driving, killing them both. Photographed Thursday, May 16, 2007. SARA GETTYS/Yakima Herald-Republic Ruby Aguilar is graduating from Heritage University with honors. She was tempted to quit school when her brother was killed in a car wreck at this intersection, at Nob Hill and 48th Ave. The wreck was caused by a car thief who was eluding police when he crashed into the car her brother and his friend were driving while . The car thief crashed into the car her brother and friend were driving, killing them both. Photographed Thursday, May 16, 2007.
TOPPENISH -- The tears always flowed during her drive.
Not during classes, not during community service projects, not during work.
But those 20 minutes alone from her house in Yakima to the Heritage University campus gave Ruby Aguilar just enough time to grieve each morning for her brother, killed in a car wreck by a man allegedly trying to elude police.
"All of a sudden, it would just hit me," Ruby said.
Then, she would arrive at school and immerse herself, determined to let nothing stand in the way of a college degree.
Ruby, 23, will realize that goal today when she walks across the lawn at Heritage during commencement.
Her brother, Guillermo "Bobby" Aguilar, was killed with his friend Edgar Mendoza-Trevino on Oct. 22, 2006, at the intersection of 48th Avenue and Nob Hill Boulevard. Both were 19.
Blake Young allegedly ran a red light in a stolen Honda Civic and crashed into them. Young is awaiting trial for second-degree murder and vehicular assault in Yakima County Superior Court. The accident also led state legislators to pass a tougher sentencing law for drivers who endanger others while attempting to elude police.
At the time, Ruby Aguilar had just started her fourth of five years at Heritage, attempting to become the first member of her family to earn a college degree. She also had just started working for the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, an experience she planned to use toward her degree in social work.
She took two weeks off to grieve for her younger brother -- the boy who walked her home from school, taught her how to drive a stick shift and later bragged about his big sister getting a college degree.
She was in turmoil. In fact, she was tempted at times to drop out of society. Sirens made her jump, and she found herself unexplainably calling her parents to make sure they were OK.
She had experienced death in the family before. Her older sister, Irene Vargas, died in 1999 with chronic liver disease. But her brother's death caught her by surprise.
Ruby already had missed a semester in 2005 when she had her son. Her family members and those of her boyfriend, Marcos Bustos, took turns watching the baby while she studied and worked.
In fact, her son gave her motivation to keep going.
"I think if I wouldn't have had my son ... I would have wanted to not exist," she said.
Two weeks after the crash, she began making that drive to Toppenish again, letting her emotions out in private before diving into the pleasant distraction of school.
She never hid her sadness, but it never slowed her down, said Miguel Puente, director of the office of admissions.
"We never, ever had to worry about Ruby," he said.
Puente mentored Ruby in a couple of programs and thought her social work studies would give her tools to persevere.
Her resolve did not surprise the rest of her family, either, said Guillermo Aguilar, her father.
The fruit warehouse supervisor remembers his daughter always enjoying school and earning near perfect grades. She did her homework as soon as she would come home.
"She looked happy all the time when she was going to school," he said.
Ruby's mother Ana Lucas-Garcia is the one who introduced her to social work. She worked as a receptionist for the Department of Social and Health Services.
Ruby graduated from Davis High School in 2003 with an Achievers Scholarship, a full-ride given by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
She is already on her way to a master's degree in social work through Eastern Washington University's Yakima campus. She also plans to purse a doctorate.
* Ross Courtney can be reached at 930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.
Heritage University Commencement
* 10 a.m. today at the Toppenish campus, 3240 Fort Road
* About 154 under-graduates and graduate students will participate. They earned a total of 320 degrees this year.
* Deborah Wilds, president and chief operating officer at the College Success Foundation, will present the commencement address.
E-mail
Print
Weather/Forecast
