By Polly Keary, Editor
A Stanwood family of four, killed last week in a car crash when a car in front of theirs pulled out suddenly into their path, were long-time parishioners of St. Mary of the Valley Catholic Church in Monroe, and this week there will be services for them there.
Gabriel Ochoa, wife Dioselina Buenrostro, and daughters Sandra, 9, and Yesenia, 3, were on their way to visit relatives in Quincy when the family's Tahoe collided with a vehicle driven by an Edmonds woman, 27, in an intersection near the Eastern Washington town of George.
The Tahoe landed in an irrigation canal and the family was trapped within, and drowned.
"It's staggering," said Father Phillip Bloom of St. Mary's. "I did the blessing of their wedding in 2010, and Dioselina was a catechist from years past. And Sandra had her first communion here, and the baby was baptized here."
The congregation has been deeply rocked by the tragedy, he said. And it can be hard to provide comfort at such a time, he added.
"I wish I had words," he said. He turns to the Bible, particularly the books of Job and Ecclesiastes with their discussions of suffering and loss, for wisdom.
"It's nothing I've got any answers for," he said. "In some ways, the best we can do is just to let people know we can identify with some of what they are going through."
The church will hold a funeral mass at St. Mary's on Wednesday at 11 a.m., and a Rosary at Purdy and Kerr Funeral Home the night before at 7 p.m.
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