‘There was a silence in the car’; Urbana family remembers, mourns baby after fatal crash

URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — On a cold January day, Cece Hu took her first breath. After two miscarriages, it was a moment years in the making for her parents and two older sisters, ages 9 and 10. “The girls would actually come in first thing in the morning to say, ‘Hi’ to her and they would do homework in the room she’s sleeping in because they want to hang out,” Cece’s mother Evelyn Huang said. The new-found normal for the family of five came crashing down in an instant when they were involved in a wreck. Huang and her three daughters were driving home from the older girls’ dance class in Urbana on March 13. Huang started to pull into the intersection of Philo Road and Colorado Avenue when her car was T-boned by a car running through the four-way stop. Urbana Police said 40-year-old Kartila Brooks clipped one car before hitting Huang, and then flipped and slid into another vehicle. Brooks slammed into Huang’s car on the driver’s side passenger door — where 2-month-old Cece was sitting. “When it happened, initially there was a silence in the car and I didn't realize how bad it was,” Huang said.  She said she turned around to see her oldest daughter was passed out in the second row of the car. The middle daughter whimpered in the third. Cece’s car seat was silent. “I remember it was this very nice nurse who held Ce outside the passenger window and she was just holding her and Ce was limp as if she was asleep,” Huang said. “I asked her, ‘Please give me my baby, I just want to see my baby.’” Huang called her husband, Yih-Chun Hu, who drove to the crash fearing the worst. “I went to look inside the car,” Hu said. “I checked on Evelyn and [our two daughters] and then I went to look for the baby. When I saw her, I noticed she was turning blue.” Paramedics put the baby on a stretcher and started doing chest compressions. Hu went with her to Carle Hospital and later flew with her to St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “The helicopter ride to St. Louis was about 75 minutes, and I felt like it was the longest 75 minutes of my life,” Hu said. “They were doing their best, but Ce was really just hanging on by a thread.” When they arrived, doctor’s told Hu that Cece had suffered a devastating brain injury and it was almost impossible for her to survive. Meanwhile, Huang was still at Carle with their two older daughters. She had two fractured vertebrae and a fractured sternum. The 10-year-old broke her clavicle and her wrist. The 9-year-old was suffering from a broken arm. Huang was discharged from the hospital and had a friend drive her to St. Louis around 2 a.m.. Halfway through the drive, Hu called and told her that Cece had coded. “By the time I got there, she was already gone,” Huang said. “When I got there she was pale and cold, and I held her in my arms. I couldn't believe that 12 hours ago she was cooing and smiling at me and now she [had] died.” It was well into the morning when they walked out of the hospital room without their baby. They were in shock as they drove back home to their two other daughters. “I couldn't go into her nursery,” Huang said. “I can still pretend that she was just napping and I’m doing house work when I'm not in the room, but when I go in and she’s not in that bassinet, I have to face the reality that this child we won't be able to do all the things we did with the two older girls.” They miss her full head of hair, holding her at family meals and her cries that have since gone silent. “Everything looks the same but nothing is bright anymore,” Huang said. “Yes, we can still go through the motions and we have a lot of things we look forward to, but it’s just not the same.” She said she and her husband have been talking with grief groups to navigate a path forward. As the sadness continues to come in waves, they hope to find a balance between honoring her and living fully alongside their two remaining daughters. “I don't want her death to define us,” Huang said. “We don't want to just sink into grief and ignore everything else that we have, but on the other hand we want to remember her, and I don't quite know how to balance that right now.” She said yearly family photos will never feel complete. Two months will never be enough for what she hoped to do with Cece.  “I'll just always miss the child, and it doesnt mean I can't enjoy or appreciate our other family and our awesome big girls, but Ce just left a hole that I don't think anything can fill.” Huang said. Cece’s memory lives on through a memorial website her family has put together. Kartila Brooks was initially issued citations for disobeying a stop sign and operating an uninsured motor vehicle. On Friday, though, she was arrested after blood tests shows that her THC levels were above the legal limit at the time of the crash. She was arraigned on four felony charges Monday. They are all for aggravated driving while under the influence of drugs — one for the death of Cece and three more for Huang and his two daughters. If convicted, she faces up to 50 years in prison. Her detention hearing is scheduled to continue on Tuesday.