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YORK – At a memorial service on Saturday, hundreds of family, friends and York community members rallied behind the parents of a University of Maine first-year student who died Oct. 9 after a car accident on Interstate 295 in Falmouth.
Erika Jolie, an 18-year-old new media student and a 2010 graduate of York High School, was remembered fondly and happily at the celebration at American Legion Post 56 in the town of just over 12,000.
There were plenty of tears and smiles in the legion hall’s packed banquet room for much of the afternoon as a large crowd of community members shared memories, viewed pictorial displays and signed messages for a “memory quilt” for Erika’s parents, Thomas and Alison.
Her father said the Saturday celebration was intended to get his daughter’s many friends home from college to collectively remember her life. A large group of girls wearing blue York hockey jerseys dominated the crowd.
“We did a lot of crying yesterday,” Thomas Jolie said, referencing the private funeral held Friday. “Today, we can just smile and remember how great of a kid she was.”
He noted the “incredible” response from the York community as something that has helped him and his wife through the grieving process.
“Everybody’s come together and been extremely supportive,” he said. “We moved here 18 years ago. From day one, it felt like home. It’s just a special place.”
Thomas Jolie’s first cousin, Roger Ahrens, a New Jersey resident, noted Erika’s wide-ranging impact on people from different areas of the country.
He said his wife, a high school teacher in New Jersey, was approached by a former student who now attends UMaine. He said he was upset about a girl’s death, which he had recently heard of from his girlfriend.
“My wife said to him, ‘What’s her name? Is it Erika?’ He said, ‘Yes. How did you know that?’” Ahrens said. “Here’s a kid in New Jersey that didn’t know Erika and still was upset about the things his girlfriend told him.”
Erika was an avid athlete while at York High School, participating in field hockey, ice hockey and tennis. She also enjoyed longboarding, nature walks and swimming, according to Whitney Leroux, a friend and first-year UMaine psychology student.
Leroux described Erika as a “genuine” person who was friends with “legitimately everyone” at York High School.
“If she wasn’t in a good mood and I’d come over, she would put herself in a good mood,” Leroux said. “She was definitely the best friend I’ve ever had. She just made everybody feel so much better.”
Leroux said Erika had not quite found her place in the UMaine community, as she left on many weekends and school nights to visit her boyfriend at home. However, the friends she made in a short time at UMaine, Leroux said, loved her.
“You could be in the best mood or the worst mood. Just being with her made everything OK. Nothing was wrong,” she said. “When she’s gone, now, just being in her room, I feel more comfort than being anywhere else.”
York’s tennis coach, Norm Martinen described Erika, who played for him for the first three years of high school, as a “dedicated” athlete who will always be missed by him and the team.
“She enjoyed being there. Everybody loved her. She always tried her best,” he said. “We always say life is short. Unfortunately for her, it really was.”
Erika died after the 1995 BMW she was driving southbound crossed over the highway’s median into the northbound lane in the late afternoon on Oct. 6. The car collided with a Florida man’s SUV. He was mostly unhurt, but Erika was rushed to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
According to Leroux, Erika was kept alive on machines for the next few days, but there was never hope of a full recovery. This confused many people close to her, as conflicting reports started to come out about her condition.
“I think a lot of the confusion is between them GOING to take her off life support versus actually doing it,” wrote one person on a friend’s Facebook page.
A post on Erika’s Facebook page Oct. 7 at 11 p.m. read, “RIP Erika Jolie .. you will be missed.” The hospital told The Maine Campus a day after that post that Erika was in critical condition.
“So many people were commenting on that and making the situation so much worse than it actually was,” Leroux said. “Everybody was hoping, even though there was no chance. It frustrated me knowing there was no chance but people were going, ‘She’s not dead yet.’”
According to published reports, a partially-composed text message was found on Erika’s phone by investigators at the scene. Leroux said she and her friends took issue with initial media reports that seemed to blame texting for Erika’s death.
“There was a possibility that she hydroplaned but none of the articles mentioned that at all,” she said. “Her boyfriend was checking up on her. He asked, ‘How’s the weather?’ She said, ‘Bad’ with a period and two letters after it. They don’t know anything beyond that. I don’t want Erika to be remembered like a bad example of what not to do.”
Erika was driving in a period of heavy rain with “bald” tires, according to Leroux.
Leroux said Erika was always a responsible driver and the car she was driving, her boyfriend’s, had many problems. Due to the tire’s improper alignment, Leroux said, Erika would have to turn the wheel to get the car to go straight.
“The tires needed to be replaced. There was no traction on them whatsoever,” Leroux said. “All of our friends have felt those tires. Erika would always complain about them.”
Leroux said Erika’s death has changed her life in many ways aside from grief.
“I’ve never seen so many people so upset over someone,” she said. “I’m grateful for the life I have now – I’ve been pretty grateful. But from this I’ve learned I can’t take anything else for granted. I never thought I’d lose her.”
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