Loved ones hold balloon release for 2 friends killed in wrong-way I-88 crash in Kane County
Family and friends are remembering the lives of two friends who died in a wrong-way crash in Kane County last weekend.
They both ran track at DeKalb High School, with one of them going on to do the same at UIC.
At the very venue, where Sariyah Watson and Heaven Williams competed in the sport they loved, family, friends, and community members gathered to honor the two friends with a balloon release and a lap around the track as a tribute.
In the early morning hours of May 10, Illinois State Police say 21-year-olds Watson and Williams were in a car when they were hit by a wrong-way driver on I-88 near Aurora—killing both of them. The driver of the other vehicle also died.
People are now rallying to support the families through GoFundMe as their families feel the sudden loss of young lives cut short.
"I think it's gonna leave a huge gap on everyone, not just our community and close friends," said friend Kayshia Stevenson.
Stevenson is a close friend of Watson and helped organize the event.
"Sariyah moved mountains for any and everybody. She helped me through so much, so I know she helped many, many others, especially at UIC and track," she said.
Watson and Williams were friends since elementary school, ran track together in high school, and stayed close during their college years—during which Watson was a student athlete at UIC.
"We drove up and us seeing just the mass of people in the middle of the field and the balloons so overwhelming," said Williams' aunt Chanel Martin. "Her mom named her Heaven, and when we think of heaven, we think of joy and peace and ease, and that was completely the epitome of her being."
Martin says, though the young women are no longer here, what remains present are their spirits and the lessons shared through the lives they lived and sport they embodied.
"I think the beauty of the sport that they practiced was how they were able to lose themselves in it," Martin said. "We're running a race in life, but the beautiful part is when we forget we're running and we're just allowed to just be."
