Community rallies after tragedy leaves 3 brothers without parents

Three brothers - Michael, Diego and Joel Navarro - lost both their parents within months. (Family photo, used with permission)

DOWNEY – A family is asking for support after two separate tragedies have left three brothers without their parents.

Lorraine Navarro was killed on Feb. 19 when an unsupervised, unlicensed, speeding teen crashed into her truck in Lynwood.

The loss came as a shock to Navarro’s family, especially to her three sons – 20-year-old Michael, 18-year-old Diego, and 13-year-old Joel - who had lost their father Albert Pasaye after an extended battle with a chronic illness just months prior.

“Unlike the father who had been sick a while and I think everybody had prepared themselves for it, this was a big shot because it was the double-whammy of both parents and then it was just so sudden that there was no way to prepare for it,” said Octavio Navarro, Lorraine’s brother.

Family, friends, and the community have already made moves to support the three brothers and provide “as much normalcy as possible,” according to sister Irma Rayburn. Now, the family is starting to look ahead at the boys’ long-term needs and situation.

“Obviously, we’re looking at where will they be, what is going to be home base for them in six months,” said Rayburn. “Living expenses, those types of things.”

“One of the reasons we wanted to share this is we did set up a go-fund me page for them, and we’ve received a lot of support from people for that,” added Navarro. “Those funds are to pay for immediate funeral expenses, but also long-term educational goals for them and financial support.”

Two Go Fund Me accounts – one for funeral expenses and one for living expenses and future college financing - have accumulated nearly $72,000 already. The most recent page can be found at https://gofund.me/2b22dcae.

Navarro added that sharing the story would help the boys “share their grief.”

“It really has helped me to know that everybody was so interested in giving,” said Navarro. “Obviously people we knew, but even people we didn’t know, to understand the story.”

“For me, what was important for them was sharing that grief; understanding that there are people that care, that there are people that will want to help.”

Meanwhile, both Navarro and Rayburn say that they continue to pray for the teen involved in Lorraine’s crash.

“All of us make some mistakes,” said Navarro. “Although we don’t know who he is or his family, we all pray for him as well, as we know this will affect his life.”

“[We’re] not focusing on being angry at anyone,” added Rayburn. “My heart really does go out to the young man and his family, because I can’t imagine what that must be like.”