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Family loses gem of a daughter

Relatives grieve for Chalama Vern Peters, who was hit by a car while walking to work.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published October 6, 2005

	[Special to the Times]
	Chalama Vern Peters stands with her 5-year-old brother Germaine Peters after her graduation from Jefferson High in May.

TAMPA - Veronica Peters always called her eldest daughter "Gem."

"She was a princess to me. That's why we call her Gem," Peters said. "I prayed to God for her to be a girl. She was the prettiest thing for me. I'd just look at her some days."

Peters loved to dress her little Gem, but she grew up quickly. At 16, Chalama Vern Peters was a tomboy, and always wore pants.

She had finished Jefferson High School two years early. Gem could read a book in half an hour, her sister boasted. The teen would lose track of time at Barnes & Noble and call her mom for a ride home after dark.

She didn't have her own car yet, but her mom was saving to buy one for Gem's 17th birthday on Oct. 29. Gem worked odd shifts at McDonald's to help with costs.

She was on foot Tuesday morning, headed to work, when she was hit by a car on Henderson Road in northwest Hillsborough County.

Gem died early Wednesday of her injuries.

Deputies identified the driver as 17-year-old Michael Elwell. He was headed back to his home in Carrollwood after dropping his father off at work, said the father, Merle Elwell.

Michael Elwell was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injury and was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

Gem was pronounced brain dead at 9:50 p.m. but kept on life support until about 1 a.m.

Wednesday, her 11-year-old sister Martina answered Gem's cell phone all morning, speaking to friends who had hoped the news reports weren't true.

The phone had a Louis Vuitton style cover. Gem had invested $80 of her hard-earned money to decorate her phone.

Her mother sobbed on the couch, while Gem's 5-year-old brother Germaine dabbed at his mother's tears with a dish towel.

He wore sneakers his big sister had bought him.

The family couldn't afford nice sneakers when Gem was little, and she wanted her siblings to have the things she didn't have growing up. She bought them both a pair of Reeboks.

Every Monday after Gem got a paycheck, she'd walk to Wal-Mart and spend all her money on clothes for her little brother and sister.

"She wanted to see the kids look good," Peters said.

Gem bought them Gap book bags when school started. She bought a Harry Potter comforter for the bottom bunk bed she shared with little Germaine.

Martina has the top bunk, and remembers watching scary movies with her sister long after her mom had told them to go to sleep.

"We always joke about what happens in the movies and stuff. And she always seems to make me scream. She'd go to the bathroom and I'd get out of the room to look for her. She'll come hide somewhere and pop out of nowhere. We'd always get in trouble," Martina said. "She just knew how to make someone laugh."

Now, the laughter is gone from the bedroom Martina and Germaine don't even want to enter. "Mommy, Gem's gone," Germaine said, his eyes welling up.

A blue graduation gown hangs on the wall. A glue stick waits near an unfinished scrapbook from her days at Jefferson, where she graduated in May.

After graduation, her dream was to move to California and become an interior decorator. She promised her mom that when she saved enough money from her job at McDonald's, she would redecorate their small home.

Now her mother finds comfort only in knowing that, as an organ donor, Gem may help others.

"They got a good human being inside their body," the mother said.

After a church service in two weeks, Gem's cremated ashes will be kept in an urn at the house.

"I want to keep her here," Peters said. "That's where she belongs."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813 226-3354 or at azayas@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 6, 2005, 01:13:15]