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Flowers planted in memory of woman

The 22-year-old crash victimfrom Citrus Countyis rememberedby family members as unusually giving.

By MOISES MENDOZA
Published June 23, 2006

He had the worst news possible: Leann Marie Hoskins, 22, the woman Colomb had come to consider a daughter, had died in a car crash.

Family members believe she may have blacked out before her car slid off the road; Hoskins had recently been suffering from dizzy spells, they said. She was not wearing a seat belt, the FHP said.

On Wednesday morning, 12 of Hoskins' closest friends and family gathered at NE 55th Avenue Road just north of NE 38th Place in Ocala, the spot where she crashed into a clump of trees June 13.

They held each other as they wept, and planted pink, white and purple flowers at the place where she died.

"It's because they'll grow there," said Hoskins' biological mother, 41-year-old Dawn McBride. "They'll never wilt and die like bouquets from a funeral."

Family members talked about the friend they had lost, remembering an unusually giving woman. Hoskins was someone who, despite personal obstacles, would do anything for her children, her family or the people she served as a certified nursing assistant.

She never had a childhood, said her boyfriend Thomas Matos, 26.

At 15, Hoskins was pregnant. She gave birth to a little girl she named Julie. At age 19, she had Andrew.

She loved to play soccer, but taking care of the kids became her passion. In tough times, she would sometimes go hungry so her kids could eat.

But Hoskins had goals for herself, too. She went to school and became a medical professional. In 2005, she started attending church services. She met Matos in 2004 and the two fell in love.

Hoskins' biological father had basically abandoned McBride and Hoskins, family members said. It was not until McBride and Randy Colomb, 45, came together when Hoskins was about 9, that she finally had a real father figure.

McBride and Colomb would later split up, and Randy Colomb would marry Kathryn, 47.

Over the years, Kathryn Colomb and Hoskins would develop a close relationship. Hoskins had overcome so much that nobody thought her life would end like this.

Last Sunday as she grieved, Tiffany Hoskins, 21, one of Leann's sisters, got a tattoo of an angel on her back. It said "Leann, Andrew, Julie."

"I loved her so much," Tiffany Hoskins said. "She will always mean so much to me."

[Last modified June 22, 2006, 22:30:53]