AUBURN, AL — A grief-stricken family is on its way to Florida to tell a Winder mother that her four children and fiancé died in a crash Sunday.
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot traveled to Alabama to talk with her mother, Helen Turk.
She says she still isn't sure how she's going to tell her daughter, Sabrina, about their deaths.
“It's very hard, you know. I don't know how to do it. It's going to be hard to do it, and I don't know. I'm scared she's going to have a setback when she finds out,” Helen Turk said.
Police say Sabrina Turk was driving when the crash happened near Tallahassee.
Her fiance, Lysander Smith, and her four children -- LJ, 14: Trey, 3: QT, 6: and Epiphany, 7 -- died in the crash.
Sabrina’s other two sons, Kavardale and Tymalique, were not in the car and are now living with their grandmother.
Sabrina remains hospitalized, but with her well enough to have her breathing tubes removed, her mother thinks it's time.
“Four of her kids gone, and her fiancé gone., that's going to be hard, even hard for me, and I’m not even in the hospital like that. But they want me, us to be there. But God have mercy, I hope be the one to break down,” Helen Turk said.
Police say the family was driving from Winder to Florida when, for some reason, Sabrina Turk crossed over the I-10 median and hit a pickup truck. Investigators say no one in her car was wearing a seat belt.
Helen Turk is now facing four funerals that could cost, she says, $10,000 each. The funerals will all be held on Oct. 17 in the Tuskegee University chapel.
“Well, it's hard. Up and down. We go up and down. One day I’m OK. Next time, I’m not. Seems like the boys are holding on a lot better than I am,” she said.
Kavardale Turk believes his mother will recover, and they will be a family again.
"I want them to know that they're in a better place now," Kavardale said. "My mom will get out soon. She'll be alright.”
Kavardale Turk read a letter he wrote about the tragedy to Elliot.
“For ever and ever, we will remember my sisters and brothers. They're looking down hoping I won't cry. I love them with all of my heart,” he read. “I am the man of the house. My dad passed away. The family is crying, but they know he is in a better place. He wants me to be the man of the house.”
The Turk family is accepting donations at any branch of the Auburn Bank in Alabama.