The mom of a 14-year-old teen who died in a car crash early Sunday morning is working to raise funds to bury her son in Omaha.
Kevin Ramirez-Cabrera, an eighth grade student at Norris Middle School died on his way to the hospital, after the car he was riding in crashed into a metal light pol on Riverfront Drive, just east of the Century Link Center.
“Everyone would recognize him as having a nice smile,” said Ramirez’s younger sister, Kariely Ramirez-Cabrera. “Every time you looked at him, you could tell he was a good person. He didn’t deserve to die.”
On a couch, next to a vigil the family set up for Ramirez in the family’s living room, Ramirez and her mother said they’re still working to process their tragic loss.
"They called me and told me I had to go to the hospital. But I had no idea how bad it was. I thought I was going to go find him with some scratches. Death never even occurred to me,” said Ramirez’s mom.
"I still don't understand. I feel as if he's here. I don't feel that he's dead because I haven't seen him, I feel like he's still at a friend's. I feel he's still alive. Even though I already saw him at the hospital,” she added.
Ramirez’s aunt set up a GoFundMe account to help her sister-in-law pay to transport Ramirez’s body to Mexico and have it buried in her home state of Guerrero.
Ramirez’s mom, a single mother with two young children, said ideally they would transport the body, but after looking at the cost to send her son’s body, she said there would be no way she could come up with that kind of money.
Her siblings are helping her to look for more affordable options in Omaha. She says although she wished she could make her son happy and bury him in Mexico, she likes the idea of having him buried closer to her.
