Mass honors Vandebilt students killed last year
Friends and family of four Vandebilt Catholic High School students who died in a car wreck last year gather at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral during a vigil marking the anniversary of the deaths Monday in Houma.
Michael Conti/Staff
Michael Conti/Staff
In the darkness outside St. Francis de Sales Monday evening, Jimmy Cantrelle stood staring upward.
His wide, wet eyes were fixed on the cathedral's steeple, with its statues of angels and its spire pointed heavenward. He gripped a small fragment of white ribbon and said a Hail Mary.
The prayer was one of four Cantrelle and the crowd around him chanted. This one was for his son, T.J., who Cantrelle lost last year.
“He was perfect,” Cantrelle said of his son. “If you could order the perfect son you always wanted, it would have been him.”
On Sept. 26, 2010, T.J. and three friends, Megan Hitt, Gabrielle Hebert and Ian Haydel, were killed in a car wreck on La. 182 in Bayou Blue. After a 10-hour search, their bodies were found in the truck Cantrelle was driving, submerged in the bayou.
Cantrelle, Hitt and Hebert were all 17; Haydel was 15. All four attended Vandebilt Catholic High.
Monday, a year after the crash, hundreds of friends and family members of the four students filled St. Francis de Sales in downtown Houma for a Mass celebrating their lives.
“We are here to celebrate the greatness of four young people who loved you, and who you obviously loved very much,” said the Very Rev. Vicente De La Cruz.
Cruz cited chapter 18 of the Book of Matthew, in which Jesus tells his disciples, who are arguing over who will be the greatest in heaven, that they should be like a small child.
“They are not the greatest because they achieved everything they dreamed of. They didn't,” De La Cruz said of the four students. “They are great because they loved, like Jesus told them to.”
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As De La Cruz spoke, a small candle flickered in front of each student's picture. They had been lit by family members, who sat in front, arms wrapped around each other. De La Cruz told the congregation that the best way to honor their dead loved ones was to help others.
“The 27th of September, 2010, was not remembered as a great day. The 26th and 27th of September, 2011, should be,” he said. “The greatness of things that happen to us is not when the event happens but how we choose to remember it. If you want to remember the great people in your life, then you know what to do. Love people.”
After the Mass, the congregation joined hands outside in four huge circles around rings of candles, holding long white ribbons. People passed a pair of scissors around the circle, slowly snipping off pieces of ribbon.
“This has really brought back a lot of memories,” Cantrelle said. “It hasn't really gotten any easier, a year later. But I thank God every day for my son and what he means to me.”
T.J.'s uncle, John Cherry, embraced Cantrelle tight as the ceremony finished. It was one of many hugs that happened as the crowd departed.
“I can't explain how this feels,” Cherry said. “It represents to me that T.J. was full of love all the time. That's the way people remember him.”
Erin Cane, Ian Haydel's cousin, said she and her family have also had a hard time coping with the loss.
“Honestly, it hasn't been any easier,” she said. “It's been a very tough year for us.”
Cane said she was glad so many people attended the Mass and joined in the circles.
“It really shows how much Ian and the others meant to so many people,” she said.
Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635 or at matthew.albright@dailycomet.com.
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