MONROVIA >> Erica Nelson received a call in the predawn hours last Sunday that everyone dreads will wake them up one day.
It was someone who asked two questions: Do you know Chris Nelson, and are you sitting down?
“(My cell phone) rang, I guess about 3:45 a.m. and it said Chris was calling, so I answered,” Erica Nelson said Wednesday.
It wasn’t her husband of 16 years, whom she expected was calling to say he was on his way from work.
Instead, the person on the other end of the call was a Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator.
“She explained that Chris was involved in an accident on the eastbound 134 Freeway and was killed by a suspected drunken driver,” Nelson recalled. “She kept telling me the details, but I was stunned.”
Chris Nelson was pronounced dead at 1:20 a.m. at the scene of a three-car accident on the 134 Freeway in Pasadena.
Eduardo Macias, 24, of Pasadena was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, CHP officials said.
Since the fatal accident, Erica Nelson, 39, and the couple’s four children — Savannah, 16, Isabella, 14, Natalia, 10, and Cristian, 18 months — have been comforted by the love of family and friends, remembering their husband and father.
“People who have had this happen to their families have reached out to me,” Nelson said. “It’s all so overwhelming.”
Remembering her husband’s selfless nature, especially when it came to their children, Nelson wonders where her family’s life goes from this point.
“The man who drove drunk took a husband and father from his family forever, when he could have made another choice,” she said. “Chris was the cornerstone of this family, the one who made it go.”
The family’s church and school families, as Nelson called them, have provided emotional and financial support, for which she is grateful.
“Chris’ job was not 9 to 5, and he worked hard to make ends meet, but people have been so generous in our time of need, it’s heartbreaking he is not here to benefit from their kindness,” she said. “It’s weird how fate works.”
Chris Nelson, who was estranged from his own family having lost his own father as a child when the elder Nelson was killed by a drunk driver, cherished the relationship with his wife’s family and was an active part of his children’s lives, especially encouraging them in sports.
“He and I shared a love of baseball and softball, which he passed on to our kids,” Erica Nelson said. “He wanted to be there for them, unlike what happened with his own family.”
All the girls are part of recreational softball teams in Sierra Madre and at their schools.
“Chris, even though he was busy on the road working (as a sales representative for a beverage distributing company) always took them to and from school and their practices and games,” Nelson said. “This season the softball games are going to be a lot quieter without him coaching from the sidelines.”
Chris Nelson, who was an avid Dodgers and USC fan, played baseball from his youth to high school and then college, always wearing his favorite number 21 on his jerseys.
“The number meant a lot to him,” Erica Nelson said. “Funny enough it was the age he was when we met. He saw that as a good sign.”
It wasn’t only his children who benefited from his coaching skills and guidance.
At every family gathering, remembered his niece, Bianca Cockrell, a student and softball player at Pomona College, he asked about the team and how she was hitting.
“Chris was balanced except for when it came to sports and his kids, both of whom he loved zealously and unconditionally,” she said.
A GoFundMe account has been set up for the family.
