WEST JORDAN — Rhonda Johnson wept, hugged her loved ones and honored her husband and son who were killed in an auto-pedestrian collision exactly four months earlier at a memorial installed Monday at the site of the fatal crash.
Johnson and about three dozen others released balloons into the air and planted flowers as they stood at the spot on 7800 South near the Mountain View Corridor where a vehicle hit and killed Todd Johnson, 44, and his son Levi, 11, on Dec. 14. The two were on their way to a nearby grocery store to buy Christmas presents.
Johnson said Monday she has wanted a memorial for a long time, during what has been a trying time for her and her family.
“It’s been hard. We’ve had good days with bad moments,” she said.
"I couldn’t have done it without them," Johnson said, motioning to those who gathered to honor her loved ones Monday.
Johnson said she wanted to remember her husband and son in a way that reflected their personalities and “the love of life that they had.”
Neighbors who organized the memorial erected a small wooden “Y” to symbolize Todd’s love of BYU sports, and the scores of balloons released into the air were all blue and white (for the Cougars) or black and yellow (for Batman, Levi’s favorite superhero).
“We hope it (helps others) remember something happened here, to remember to be careful,” said Zach Jacob, a neighbor.
Cari Jessup, a neighbor of the Johnson family, was first to the scene of the crash after she and her husband came upon it while returning from a Christmas party.
Jessup said the mutual grief from the crash that killed Johnson’s husband and son have made the two neighbors inseparable.
"Rhonda is now my sister,” she said.
Jessup, Johnson and others at the memorial site say 7800 South is far too dimly lit in the area where it intersects with the Mountain View Corridor.
“I still see people walking down this road in dark clothes. It’s not safe right now. They need to stay off of it. It scares me,” Johnson said. “And people need to slow down on this road."
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