Four family members with ties to Houma died in mid-August from a head-on collision that claimed the lives of eight people in Oregon.
Former Houma resident Erika Boquet, 29, and her three children — Isabella, 11, Elisabeth, 8, and Tytis, 6 — all died in the crash. Boquet and her children were on their way to Las Vegas for a family vacation. She was driving with her father’s girlfriend and her two children, who were also killed in the collison.
Police said a 1999 Toyota 4Runner crossed the centerline near Burns, Oregon, and crashed into the family’s 2016 Toyota 4Runner. The crash killed all seven people in the newer SUV and the driver in the older SUV.
The Boquet family members, who had been living in Tacoma, Washington, will be buried Friday at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Houma.
Todd Boquet Jr., Erika Boquet’s husband and the father of the three children, will be temporarily allowed to leave the Louisiana prison where he’s incarcerated to attend the memorial service.
Tiffany Trahan, Todd Boquet’s sister, said she fought for his presence at the burial. It wasn’t until she got into contact with the office of state Rep. Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma, that he was granted permission to attend.
“He’s a good person that made a bad choice,” Trahan said. “All I want is for him to be there.”
Although there are rough days for Todd Boquet, Trahan said he’s trying to remain strong.
“He’s doing, I would dare to say, as best as he can be,” Trahan said. “At the end of the day, he just still really wants to make them proud, like he’s been trying to do — to become a better person and overcome his trials and the mistakes that he’s made.”
Todd Boquet has written two children’s books for his kids while in prison, Trahan said, and he had been looking forward to coming home to be a “better father and husband.”
He met Erika Boquet when he was stationed in Washington, Trahan said, adding that when he came home he said he had “met the woman of his dreams.”
“That’s his family,” Trahan said. “He has nothing left of them.”
Trahan said she will be giving a eulogy for the four family members.
“They each had their own little quirks about them,” Trahan said. “They were people you could not easily forget, or forget at all for that matter.”
Trahan described Erika Boquet as a devoted mother and wife determined to make her own way in life, Isabella as a soft-spoken girl that could make anyone she met smile, Elisabeth as filled with “explosive energy” and endless curiosity, and Tytis as a “mama’s boy” who could bring fun to any situation.
The family had created a nonprofit based in Washington state called One Last Stop, which aims to help low-income families by providing them with needed items like backpacks, school supplies and coats.
Trahan said she’ll be keeping the nonprofit going in Louisiana to help continue the family’s legacy of giving back to the community.
The nonprofit began, Trahan explained, after Isabella started bringing home leftover food in her pockets from school that she was saving for the homeless.
“It was from the heart of a child,” Trahan said. “It’s a shame the world doesn’t get to see what more they could have done.”
Staff Writer Natalie Schwartz can be reached at 857-2205 or nschwartz@houmatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter @nmschwartz23.
