As Claudia Sandoval looked to the sky Sunday afternoon, she saw not one cloud - just sunshine.
The sunny skies, Sandoval said, were because of her mother, Teresa, who died in a crash Saturday morning when a wrong-way driver struck the car she was riding in on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
The wrong-way driver, Douglas Memler, 55, of Naperville, was also pronounced dead, authorities said.
Claudia Sandoval said her mother and father were heading to their weekly breakfast date at approximately 11 a.m. when the crash occurred in the outbound lanes near 63rd Street.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
Claudia Sandoval said her father, Francisco, who wasn't seriously injured, called her moments after the collision happened.
"...And he was crying…We’ve just been in a terrible car accident, we need you, they can’t get your mother out of the car," she recounted.
Teresa Sandoval was youthful, energetic, and according to her granddaughter, always happy and always dancing.
Local
"People always say I have my mom's character, and I always say she has my grandma's character," said granddaughter Nina Sandoval.
Claudia Sandoval explained her mother prepared her for everything, "but she never prepared me to let her go."
"I’m not going to say goodbye mom, until we meet again... until we meet again," she said.
