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Friends and neighbors remember homeless woman killed on PCH as someone who put others first

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A Huntington Beach homeless woman named Ann “Annie” Bonelli was remembered Sunday afternoon by friends, family and neighbors as good person who put others before herself.

She was often seen wearing an Edison High School swim team jacket given to her by a local teenager who saw her hunkering against the cold one day. Seeing her in that jacket made her fit in as part of the community, but it didn’t take her off the streets.

About 30 people gathered at Huntington State Beach for the memorial to say farewell to the 56-year-old woman who was struck and killed Tuesday night (Valentine’s Day) as she crossed Pacific Coast Highway at Newland Street.

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Tamara John, a pastor of the Hope for Life Chapel (RV Ministry) who lives in the mobile home park just steps from where Bonelli was killed, led the prayer service Sunday afternoon. She told those who gathered that she ran out to the street after she heard the crash and saw Bonelli in the roadway. She lay down in the street next to the injured woman and said a prayer for her as they awaited paramedics’ arrival. Bonelli died later that night at a hospital.

Those who knew Bonelli best were other homeless people who protected her and said she had a big heart.

One of them cooked a steak dinner for her on Valentine’s Day, just hours before she was killed.

The message most of those gathered wanted to deliver was that to honor Bonelli is to acknowledge others who are homeless simply by saying hello or spending time with them instead of just walking by.

Michelle Pleytez of La Verne, Bonelli’s niece, was there with her husband and 2 1/2 year old daughter, Sofia. Pleytez said that even though Bonelli didn’t have much, she always had a little something to give her child when they visited.

“No matter how little Ann had, she was always willing to give it to anyone else that needed it,” said Pleytez. “She had a really big heart.”

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Bonelli is survived by three children, Robert Bonelli, Mark Bonelli and her daughter Laura; her mother, Esther Notthoff; her brother, Raymond Notthoff; and her sister, Carol Happach.

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