A Boy’s Death and Few Answers : Family Lacks Burial Funds for Omar, 8

Maria Elena Jimenez took the color photograph of her son from her wallet. She looked at it as only a mother could, and slowly scanned the image of the handsome, dark-haired boy with the winning smile.

“Here,” she said in a hushed tone. “This is Omar.”

She handed the photograph to Roberto Escalante, 41, who has fathered her two other children, and together they examined the picture of the 8-year-old boy who died Wednesday in a freak accident when he was crushed by a falling window at their Santa Ana home.

A latchkey child who attends year-round school, Omar came home after school but apparently had forgotten his key. He was trying to crawl through the window when it fell on him, authorities said.

“He forgot his key at home. He just didn’t remember to take it with him,” said Escalante in the living room of his brother’s Santa Ana home, where the couple had sought refuge because their own home was a grim reminder of the boy’s tragic death.

“It’s nerves. We’re really under a lot of trauma and she . . . her nerves get to her staying over there,” Escalante said of the small rear house they rented in the 900 block of South Flower Street. Escalante discovered Omar’s body in the window at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, about three hours after the boy had come home from school.

During an interview Thursday evening, the mother spoke infrequently and sobbed quietly. She wore thick sunglasses to help shield her puffy eyelids.

Since the accident, the family has spent hours trying to console one another.

‘All day long today, we’ve been sitting here thinking, trying to understand why this occurred, but all we can say is, accidents do happen, I guess,” said Escalante’s brother, Jesus.

Adding to the grief is that the couple cannot afford a burial.

Maria Jimenez now faces two alternatives: She can take the body of her son back to her home near Guadalajara, Mexico, to be buried at a cost of about $2,000; or, she can bury him in Orange County where he was born at a cost of about $3,000.

“The cost of the burial is very expensive,” Escalante said. “The people where she works are taking up a collection, and once we know how much money they collect, we’ll make a decision.”

Escalante said he usually sells children’s

clothing from his car, but sales haven’t been steady. Jimenez earns about $6 an hour as an assembler at TDK Magnetic Tape in Irvine.

“We can barely make ends meet,” Escalante said.

They are a simple family with simple goals, Escalante’s brother, Jesus, said.

“They don’t have big ambitions. Getting rich here in America was not one of their goals. They’re family people. They both were dedicated and worked hard to take care of their family, which came first,” the brother added.

“If we do get some money, I think she will have to go (to Mexico) by herself. We don’t have enough to pay for both of us,” Escalante said.

Maria Jimenez’s parents and grandparents live in San Sebastian, a suburb of Guadalajara. She has lived in the United States about 10 years, and, according to friends, she is in the process of completing her amnesty papers.

The couple’s landlord, Amelia Limone, said she was working Wednesday when Omar came home about 2:30 p.m. from Lowell Elementary School, three blocks away.

Escalante has taken care of Omar’s half-sister, Mayra Escalante, 3, during the day, Limone said. Sometimes Escalante was home when Omar returned from school, but Omar was alone at times and put in charge of the 3-year-old, she said.

Jimenez and Escalante said they earned just enough to provide bare necessities, such as food, gas for the car and $450-a-month rent.

“We can’t afford to pay” a baby-sitter, Escalante explained. “No one is to blame here. It was an accident.”

Omar also has a half-brother, 3-month-old Hector. None in the family knew the whereabouts of Omar’s father, and Jimenez was reluctant to identify him, saying: “It serves no purpose. I haven’t seen him in years.”

Neighbors said Thursday that while the family, who had moved in nine months ago, was not well known, the boy had made friends and was regarded as happy and mischievous. He liked to play with a baby next door and was being taught by older children how to box, neighbor Beatrice Cortez said. “We barely started to get to know him.”

A few curious neighbors stared Thursday from across the street at Limone’s home. Limone said some of Omar’s teachers and some co-workers of his parents came by the house before school Thursday.

But at Lowell Elementary, few were aware of the death, Principal Ann Leibovitz said. “We’re not bringing it up.” However, she said a school psychologist had counseled a few children, an adult from the community and some teachers.

A viewing is scheduled at 7 p.m. today at Brown Mortuary, 204 W. 17th St. in Santa Ana.