HUNTINGTON BEACH : Aid Sought for Widow and Family

A local resident has started a fund to help a woman whose husband and 8-year-old son were hit and killed by a vehicle while trying to cross Pacific Coast Highway.

Jeanne Sasser of Huntington Beach, who has employed Guatemala-born Maria Antointa Deras as a housekeeper for 15 years, said she wants to help the widow and her two remaining children survive the tragedy.

“She’d always come to work with a great big smile on her face,” Sasser said. “I’ve never known anyone as positive as this lady. She just doesn’t deserve something like this.”

The 42-year-old Deras usually makes a two-hour bus trip from her home in South Central Los Angeles to reach the Orange County houses and offices that she cleans. On Friday, though, her husband, Nicolas Deras, drove her to work. The couple brought along their son Nicolas Jr., who had stayed home from school because he was ill.

Nicolas Deras, 39, left his wife in Huntington Beach and headed for Long Beach, where he had been hired to clean a garage. After stopping at a filling station in Sunset Beach, the father and son tried to cross Pacific Coast Highway at Warner on foot to buy a fast-food hamburger.

They were hit by a Huntington Beach man who was driving south in a sports utility vehicle. The boy died at the scene. The father was airlifted to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where he died about five hours later. Police said the driver was not at fault.

Maria Deras is now the sole supporter of her 16-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter. Sasser and several other people for whom Deras has worked have donated $500 each to the family.

Donations to the Deras Family Memorial Fund can be sent to California State Bank, Attention D. Townzen, P.O. Box 4059, Anaheim, CA 92803.