Rancho Cucamonga native details road to recovery following crash, death of husband, birth of daughter

May 27--RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- Jan. 7. It is the day that changed Stephanie Vasquez's life -- even if she has erased it from her mind.

Recent Rancho Cucamonga transplants Stephanie and her husband, Steve Vasquez, were waiting to turn onto an interstate in Kyle, Texas, when a car struck another vehicle, causing that vehicle to hit the couple's vehicle.

Steve, 33, was killed in the crash, while a very pregnant Stephanie, 34,was transferred to a hospital in Austin.

The family will hold a memorial at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa at 10 a.m. Saturday. The couple attended the church before moving out of state. Stephanie and her daughter, born in February, have since returned to Rancho Cucamonga.

She hopes the memorial will provide the same closure for those who knew her husband she has found.

"Despite all the terrible things, I know that God has good things for us," she said. "I know my husband is in heaven and God showed me he was."

She wants those who knew her husband to live as he would have: Love God, love people and live life fully everyday.

As Stephanie lay in the hospital following the collision, her family didn't know how to tell her Steve hadn't made it. They even brought in a chaplain because they weren't sure how she would handle the news.

The day after the accident, doctors removed her breathing tube, and she briefly dozed off.

"Mom, is Steve dead?" her mother, Pam Hemlrich, recounted Vasequez saying when she awoke. "I asked her, 'How do you know?' She revealed she saw him smiling with Jesus. Also, she said, 'I know he would be here. If I'm this bad, I know Steve would want to see me.'"

Vasquez says she knows God brought her that vision so that she could have peace.

"I want people to come (to the memorial) so that they can know where Steve is, if they are unsure," she said. "He was such a man of God. I want people to remember that and that he is in heaven."

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that attendees bring a letter for 3-month-old Kate, telling them about her father.

Friendship turns to courtship

Stephanie Vasquez grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, attending Alta Loma Junior High School and Etiwanda High School, then as Stephanie Helmrich.

Steve Vasquez attended UC Riverside, where he earned a math degree and teaching credential. He went on to earn a master's degree from Concordia University.

The couple met at Corona High School. She taught English. He taught math.

"It took him a little while for him to pursue me," Vasquez chuckled as she recalled those early days. "I just thought we would be friends. I'm so glad that Steve did pursue me because I was completely clueless."

Steve had a zest for life, Vasquez said.

"He put me as one of his top priorities. ... He put God first and me next," she said.

As their relationship grew, Vasquez said, they enjoyed being in each other's presence and never argued. The couple married in 2009, and by 2012 she had left teaching to become a wedding florist. It took them several years, after they decided to start a family, to get pregnant. The yearslong journey would eventually lead the couple to seek in vitro fertilization. After 10 attempts, the couple learned of the pregnancy.

It wasn't easy. Not only was she was extremely nauseous, losing 20 pounds in her first month of pregnancy, but she also was placed on bed rest from July until November 2015 because she was experiencing miscarriage symptoms.

Rather than stay home with family in Rancho Cucamonga, Steve Vasquez convinced his wife to move. He took care of her, making all the meals, cleaning the house, loving her, Vasquez said in tears.

Kate Adalaide was born Feb. 10, weighing 4 pounds, 8 ounces. She arrived a month before her due date, Vasquez said.

As she held her young daughter, the single mother said her husband would have been overjoyed.

"He would be relishing in her being joyful," she said. "I think she definitely has my eyes, but I see him in her a lot."

Ashley Moser, Stephanie's younger sister, said her brother-in-law would be so proud of Stephanie and Kate.

"When I look in Kate's eyes, I can tell that he would have been so much in love with her, and just the best father to her anyone could ask for," she said.

Moser said Steve had a laugh that was unique and extremely loud.

"He had such a large and helpful heart that no matter the task, Steve was there helping out," she said.

Road to recovery

After the accident, Vasquez was transported to University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin. There she would be treated for internal injuries including a broken pelvis on both the left and right sides and broken ribs. Her diaphragm was torn, shoving her organs up and out of the left side of her ribs.

Her left lung collapsed ,and doctors performed abdominal surgery -- while she was still pregnant -- to position her organs back in place.

Miraculously, her unborn daughter was uninjured.

"She was very healthy the whole time, and nothing happened to her. She was very well protected," Vasquez said, standing in the living room of her parents' Rancho Cucamonga home. Five months after the accident, Vasquez spends most of her days standing to deal with the pain from a sciatic nerve on the right side that causes her muscles to seize.

While most expectant moms nest, Vasquez spent her final days recuperating. On Feb. 10, she began experiencing contractions.

Despite Vasquez's internal injuries and Kate's premature arrival, the baby didn't have to spend any time in the neonatal intensive care unit.

"I know that she's a miracle from God. I know that God has a purpose for both of us," Vasquez said.

Helmrich said throughout her daughter's 11 days in the hospital, emergency doctors, nurses, police officers and firemen came to visit Vasquez.

"They just needed to come and see Stephanie and Kate," her mother said. "They all needed to see that Stephanie was OK."

As they visited, Helmrich said, her daughter could see their pain and began praying for them.

"All the nurses were praying for her, and she was praying for everybody else," she said.

Moser said even though "the worst is over, (Stephanie) must now figure out how to live her life without Steve. Stephanie is not only in pain from the accident but now must figure out how to raise her daughter -- their daughter that they fought so hard to conceive."

Vasquez is grateful, she said, for the support she has received from family, friends and even strangers. Police and fire associations in Kyle purchased and delivered all the remaining items from the couple's baby registry.

Nearly $95,000 has been raised on the crowdfunding site gofundme.com/the vasquez. The funds are vital for Vasquez, who said she is currently battling her insurance provider about a gap in coverage while she was hospitalized.

"I'm so blessed that so many people gave," said Vasquez, who had relied on her husband to financially take care of the family. "I'm just amazed at the outpouring of love and support. It's helped me so much to be able to able to pay the bills, so I don't have to (file) any bankruptcy stuff."

She returned to Rancho Cucamonga March 20 and in early April began physical therapy. Vasquez started going twice a week and is now up to three sessions a week.

"It's hard. I go forward and back with my condition," she said. "I get really discouraged sometimes because the pain is constant, but I'm just hoping and praying that it will be sooner rather than later that I can finally get some relief."

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