LOCK PORT-Cara Day loved everybody-and hundreds of people whose lives she touched in her 18 years lit a candle for her at last night's vigil Riverview Park.
Cara, of Howard, passed away Wednesday evening at Geisinger Medical Center after a car crash that afternoon on Mackeyville Road.
She had just graduated from Central Mountain High School. Her classmates, loved ones, soccer and track teammates and other friends poured out to say goodbye last night.
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McKenna Kunes, Brad Walker and Rocco Vuocolo comfort each other at Cara Day’s vigil last night at Riverview Park. McKenna and Brad were her best friends, and Rocco her boyfriend.
Many there described their relationship with Cara as "inseparable," and said the word "hate" was not in her vocabulary. Rather, her life was one of love, a living antithesis of hate.
Before the sun set, many held unlit candles, too reminiscent of the young life for whom they gathered.
McKenna Kunes, Cara's best friend, gathered many in her arms, telling some to smile-Cara would've wanted that.
McKenna met Cara in kindergarten on "those stupid plastic rockets" they had at the school.
They instantly liked each other. They've been best friends ever since.
And last week, they graduated together.
What drew her most to Cara was how real she was, and how she accepted and loved everyone.
"She was so loving; she loved everyone... She didn't have a bone of hate in her body," she said.
They loved goofing around together, she said.
"She had these burps," laughed McKenna. "No one could top them. She was just one of the guys."
And Cara had a serious love of bacon.
"She loved bacon. She loved food so much, but bacon was definitely her favorite," McKenna said, grinning.
To symbolize the start of their friendship, they were going to get matching rocket tattoos.
"It's so upsetting that never got to happen," she said. She still plans to get the tattoo. "How could I not?"
She couldn't speak for several moments.
"I knew her my whole life. I've never spent one second of my life without her," she said, sobbing.
She wants her story to be remembered.
"As long as her story lives on..." she broke off, crying. "She's my best friend. She always has been and always will be."
Brad Walker, who helped organize the vigil, was like a brother to Cara.
"What can't you say about her?" he asked. "You can use every word in the dictionary about her except hate. She would yell at us for using that word."
They met through mutual friends last year, and have been good friends since. They were the kind of friends who could cry on the other's shoulder.
"We all loved her with everything we could possibly possess," Brad said. "She was the most genuine, caring, loving person I've ever met in my life... She was a true person. She always had my back."
Like McKenna, he loved joking around with Cara, he said.
"You never knew what was going to come out of her mouth, but you knew it would be funny," he said, laughing.
Max Toner knew Cara since kindergarten. Cara could put a smile on anyone's face, he said.
"You'd be in a bad mood, but she'd put you in a good one. She was the life of the party," he said. "She was always smiling. I don't think I've ever seen her sad, maybe twice in my life."
Allie Kaluzny played soccer with Cara and said they did "everything together. We were inseparable."
Kim Seylor knew Cara through her daughter who was on the soccer team with her. Cara was like a daughter to her; she and her friends were always at their house, having campfires or swimming, she said.
"She was a free spirit. Nothing ever seemed to bother her," Kim explained.
The kids call her Mama Kim, and she always called Cara her "Care Bear."
"There wasn't anybody my little Care Bear didn't like," she said.
Cara was just at her house last weekend for their graduation party. And the day Cara passed on, Kim's daughter was going to go floating with her on the river.
She looked around at the hundreds gathered for Cara and, referring to other recent deaths of young people, said: "The strength this group of kids has shown in the last couple weeks is inspirational."
she said, referring to other recent deaths of young people.
