CLEVELAND — No matter the age, losing a parent is never easy, and for Diego and Noah Nunney, they lost both their mom and dad on the same day.
RELATED: 2 Cleveland school teachers killed in crash
On Aug. 15, Noah told me his parents, Donald Nunney and Maria Galindo-Nunney, along with his two youngest siblings, were supposed to meet him for lunch at the University of North Carolina.
His family had just moved him into college.
"At one o'clockish, I look at my phone. I have both my sister's and my mom's location, and I'm like, OK, they're not too far away. They'll be here in about 37 minutes. I remember 37 minutes. 1:30 p.m. rolls around, they're still in the same spot, so I'm getting worried," Noah Nunney said.
He immediately called his brother, Diego, who was back home in Cleveland. He didn't go to North Carolina due to work obligations.
"I call my mom, call my dad, my sister. I call them all like 20 times each probably and I text them all. I'm like 'Mom, why don't you answer? What's going on?' My brother sent me the location and it was on the side of the road and I told my brother you gotta go see what happened," Diego Nunney recalled of that day.
A half hour later, Diego said Noah let him know their parents and two younger siblings were involved in a car accident, and that their mother had passed away. The other three were airlifted to a nearby hospital.
Unfortunately, their father later succumbed to his injuries and passed away that day, too.
"Dealing with everything just in one week, it's… yeah… it’s quite frankly exhausting, but it really feels like one long day," Noah Nunney said. "I miss them every day. I wish I was here for their guidance. There's been multiple times where I've almost called my dad just because of how much he meant to me. Whenever I needed advice, I'd call him or my mom, and I definitely could use them right about now."
Noah and Diego have since learned their father suffered a heart attack behind the wheel, which led to the crash.
"Has your dad ever had a heart attack before?" I asked Diego Nunney.
"No. I mean, it's random. I guess, bad timing and nothing we can do now," he said.
Their two younger siblings, one of whom is 10 years old and the other is 15, are stable, but have a long road to recovery ahead of them.
The 10-year-old, according to Noah, suffered:
- A broken radius in his right arm
- A broken humerus
- Two broken femurs
- A broken finger on his right hand
- A broken finger on his left hand
Noah Nunney said, "He's doing much better. He's able to lift both of his legs as of today. He's got all feeling and everything, so he's doing really well."
His 15-year-old sister broke her pelvis and a humerus.
"They are young and they are still growing. It is really, really helping us, I think, throughout this whole thing," Noah Nunney said.
A GoFundMe has been set up to support the Nunney family. Diego said every cent will go towards their youngest siblings.
"I have to be stronger for my siblings because they come first now. I have to be a role model to them and be a figure to them, be strong for them, can't let them see me sad, can't let them see me cry because they're younger and they need it more," Diego Nunney said.
The GoFundMe has already raised more than $350,000.
"I'm grateful for all of it. It shows me how good of people my parents were and how much they were loved. It's really amazing and I'm grateful for everything," Diego Nunney said.
As this family looks to the future, they're also reflecting on the past, especially how incredible their parents were.
"My mom, she was a very energetic person. She lit up the room wherever she was. People love my mom. I love my mom. She loved my siblings. She's a great person to be around, great person to relate to," Diego Nunney said.
Maria worked as a counselor at Wilbur Wright PreK-8 School.
Diego described his dad, Donald, as "such a simple person."
"He did everything in routine. He's a great person. He loved his kids more than anyone else. He might have loved my mom more, but he loved us a lot," Diego Nunney said.
Donald was a language arts teacher at Joseph M. Gallagher School.
The pair had been married for about 22 years.
"The thing that stands out about my parents is how much they love the city of Cleveland and the kids. They love teaching. My dad loved teaching. So many of his students now text me telling me he's the best teacher they had. Same with my mom. I know I lost my parents, but I know there's some kids in Cleveland that feel like they lost a role model and parent figures," Diego Nunney told me.
When I talked with Diego, it was inside his family's home where pictures of his mom and dad decorated the walls and mantle.
"When you look at that photo, how does that make you feel?" I asked Diego as we looked at a photo of his parents glaring into each other's eyes — love radiating off the framed photo.
"It makes me feel happy that they left together because I know if one of them left and the other had to stay, they couldn’t do it. It’s an example of how much my parents loved each other, and they really couldn’t live without each other," Diego Nunney said.
"Is that photo kind of like an example of who you want to find some day? Someone that looks at you the same way your mom looks at your dad?," I asked Diego.
"Yeah, I hope I find the love that they had 'cause it’s so rare to find. I know they had something really special," Diego Nunney said with a smile.
Other than the love Donald and Maria had for each other, Noah said he finds himself reminiscing on the routine walk she'd have the family take.
"I don't know where she got the idea, but during 2020 COVID, she's like we're all gonna go see nature together and we'd all walk. Recently, we all did that as a family, and that's all she wanted for her birthday. With her birthday being last Sunday, Aug. 17, the memory just keeps coming up," he told me.
One thing both brothers said is that the family photo sitting in their living room once sounded like a dumb idea, but now they're extremely grateful for it.
"I wish we took more," Noah Nunney said.
As Noah navigates the loss of his parents, he said one of the last lectures his parents gave him is something he will forever carry in his back pocket now.
"It was a week before we left. My mom said that I don't allow people to help me. I stick to myself. I know that I can be very stubborn, and I know that I think when I'm right, I know that I'm right, and I don't derive from that path, but I need to let other people's voices be heard. I need to let them help me, and that's truly something I've been trying to do for the last week," Noah Nunney said.
Noah's plan for school has been to graduate with at least his Bachelor's degree, but now he plans to finish college in honor of his mom and dad.
Noah would also, at some point, like to start a scholarship fund in their honor. But, of course, that's something he'll pursue down the road.
Right now, both Noah and Diego are solely focused on their family and supporting each other as much as possible.
"I hope they knew how much we all loved them," Diego Nunney said.
Noah Nunney added, "I love them, and I definitely think that they knew that. I knew they love me, but just one last hug, one last I love you. That's all I would want. I wish I could ask for some more details, more like, why? Why now? Truly, from the bottom of my heart, I love each each of my parents."
As of Monday, according to Noah, both of his hospitalized siblings have received clearance for transfer.
Noah and Diego are hopeful their siblings will be transferred to a Cleveland-based hospital in the next one to two weeks.
We'll follow through as they continue their road to recovery.
