Van in Crash Failed Safety Check : Victims: ‘My family was my life,’ says woman who lost her pregnant sister, two nephews and two nieces in the accident.

Untold grief could be seen in the swollen, reddened eyes of Rosa Mendez Castro as she tried to make sense of it all.

Until Sunday, the lives of her family members had been filled with faith and hope--faith in God, and hope that their migration to California would lead to something better than the meager existence the family had known in Guatemala.

Suddenly, there was only despair. Castro’s pregnant sister, who was expecting to give birth to a baby girl next month, as well as two nephews and two nieces were among eight people killed Sunday when the van carrying them to a church service was rammed by a pickup truck. Five other relatives also received injuries in the accident.

“They say it is the largest (auto) accident ever (in Orange County),” she said, sobbing. “It shouldn’t have happened to my family.”

The family members killed in the accident were Castro’s sister, Rutilia Oliva, 31, and Oliva’s sons, Carlos, 5, and Daniel, 2. Other victims included a niece, Ericka Mendez, 16, and Sonia Castro, 30, who was Rosa Castro’s niece by marriage.

Through most of Monday, the financially strapped family wondered when they would be able to claim the bodies of their loved ones, since they had no money to pay for funeral expenses. Initially, the family wanted to return Ericka Mendez to their homeland. But Rutilia’s husband, Carlos Oliva, said the family was having difficulty raising money, which “is what we need the most.”

Using the scarf around her neck to wipe away her tears, Rosa Castro recalled how she and her brother, Abel Mendez, had worked for years to bring seven of nine family members remaining in Guatemala to the United States.

“I had been here without my mother and sisters,” Castro said. “My family was my life.”

The sister killed in Sunday’s crash had sold her small house in the Guatemalan town of Villa Nueva to help pay the air fare for their flight to Tijuana, Mexico. Carlos Oliva had arrived in California a month earlier. From Tijuana, the family hired a coyote to help them sneak across the U.S.-Mexico border to begin their new life.

“There are so many problems in Guatemala. There are no jobs,” Castro said. Here, she said, they considered themselves fortunate to have found a good life. With the family matriarch, nine family members moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Garden Grove. Rosa and her husband, Tito, moved into another apartment several blocks away.

Rosa, who is employed as a housekeeper, said Rutilia also worked once a week cleaning a house in Laguna Hills, but quit recently to prepare for the impending birth of the baby girl. Oliva’s husband, Carlos, who was not involved in the accident, is employed as a painter, and their 5-year-old son, Carlos, had just begun kindergarten a week ago.

Tito Castro recounted how Rutilia loved to cook. Her specialties were black bean soup and carne guisada.

But above all, the Castros said, the family was deeply devoted to their church, attending religious services or other related activities almost every day of the week.

“We had many years of going to church,” said Rosa Castro. “All of the family was Christian.” Seven years ago, shortly after coming to California, she said she discovered the Non-Sectarian Church of God in Santa Ana. When other family members followed two years ago, they began attending the same small church that catered not only to their religious needs, but would also serve them as a small community center--an extended family away from home.

A family photo album is filled with snapshots of happier times--Rutilia standing before a microphone with her pastor at a social that brought together members of the close-knit community; a baby shower for Rutilia two years ago when her son, Daniel, was born; and Carlos with a wide smile as he seemingly flew in the air while on a ride at Disneyland last year.

Also in the family album were snapshots of Ericka Mendez, Abel’s daughter, dressed in a floor-length pink gown for her quinceanera , the traditional coming out party for Hispanic girls when they reach their 15th birthday.

Ericka, who was just beginning her junior year at Santiago High School in Garden Grove, was a “studious” girl and was making progress in mastering the English language, Rosa Castro said.

All of Ericka’s brothers were also riding in the van. One surviving brother, Mainor Mendez, 11, was in critical condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange on Monday, according to family members.

Another church member killed was Tito Castro’s niece, Sonia Castro, 30. Relatives said she, too, worked as a housekeeper.

Sonia Castro’s mother, Mirtala Castro Lopez, 50, and another distant relative, Glenda Aguirre, 21, were hospitalized at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo following the accident. Castro Lopez was in critical condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit, while Aguirre was in stable condition in the same intensive care unit.

Still shaken from the accident, Edras Mendez, 12, Ericka’s brother, pointed to the injuries he suffered to his left ribs and sore right leg. “I hit the door of the van and fell on my back. Then a woman fell on me,” he said.

Rosa Castro shook her head as the accident scene ran through her mind.

“I was going to church with my husband when I saw the accident, but I didn’t think that it was them,” Castro said. When they arrived at the church a few blocks away, they learned that it was members of her family who were lying in the street.

Still stunned by the loss of his wife and two young sons, Carlos Oliva said the family was coping.

“I am hurting, but that is normal, no?”