He proposed a final stroll around downtown, he recalled, before they packed up to return home to Florida. Bundled in monochrome dark green, his young child ran around the Walnut Street Bridge, restrained by a yellow harness with a leash managed by his wife. The sun was out, and somewhere along the way, the trio stopped for a drink. Soon though, it was time to go retrieve the car. They waited, he recalled, at a stoplight, preparing to cross Frazier Avenue.
Then a bang, and the minivan came spinning toward them.
Octavio Devia Paz awoke from the coma days later. His brother and parents were there. His wife and child were dead.
Over a series of phone interviews from his home and the hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, Devia Paz described that autumn day, that trip, what happened next and what’s happening now.
He still can’t walk more than a few steps.