Family’s financial future falters

By MARGO HORNER

The Mirror

Miguel Resendiz was the rock of his family and a rock in his neighborhood.

A hard-working man, Resendiz, 40, labored many hours a week in his construction job to provide for his family: wife Maria and two children, 12-year-old Gabriel and 9-year-old Esmeralda.

And provide he did. He put food on the table and clothing on his children’s backs. He bought gas for long road trips to visit relatives. Five years ago, Resendiz bought the family a bright little rambler on 20th Avenue South in Federal Way.

The family became well-liked in the neighborhood. Resendiz was quick to help neighbors with projects around the house or with their English skills.

Resendiz died just after noon May 2 when his SUV slammed into a semitrailer parked on the shoulder of southbound Interstate 5 near State Route 516 and the Midway Landfill.

Resendiz died at the scene. The Washington State Patrol did not immediately list a cause for the crash.

“He was a really nice person. He liked to help all the people. He liked to help all the neighbors. He was a very happy person,” said Resendiz’s wife, Maria.

The family was overwhelmed with grief. The children have been in counseling since the fatal crash, Maria said.

The family will miss “everything” about Resendiz, his wife said. The weekends will be missed especially — long days filled with playing together, laughter and talking.

“We’re never going to forget about him because he was a very special person to our family, to our neighbors to everybody. He is going to be in our hearts all the time,” Maria Resendiz said.

Meanwhile, Dale Long, a neighbor down the street, worries about something else the family might miss. Resendiz was the breadwinner in the family.

How would Maria Resendiz pay the bills and keep the house, Long wondered.

“I don’t know how hard up this family is, but when only one family member works these days, it might be difficult to make the car payment, house payments, things like that,” he said.

Resendiz’s children are ineligible for Social Security benefits, Long added.

Long solicited donations from neighbors and opened an account for the Resendiz family at a local bank. It’s just that kind of neighborhood where people help each other out, Long said.

“I never received something like this and I don’t know how to act,” said Maria Resendiz, adding that she was grateful.

She also plans to seek a job as a desk clerk at a local hotel.

Contact Margo Horner: mhorner@fedwaymirror.com or (253) 925-5565.

How to help

Donations to the Resendiz family can be made at any Washington Mutual branch to the Miguel A. Resendiz Benevolent Account.

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