PINEWOOD ESTATES, Texas — A woman has enlisted the support of a whole community, trying to help a struggling family fractured by grief.
Shane Hardy, 20, had just left home when he turned onto Highway 105 Friday night, heading west.
Moments later, his car crossed over into on-coming traffic and collided with two SUVs.
Hardy, a recent graduate of Hardin-Jefferson High School, died at the scene after the vehicle caught fire.
The tragedy influenced a friend of the Hardy family to provide a method of support.
"No one ever expects something like this," Cindy Bates said. "When you are a parent yourself, you can feel the empathy and you can feel when a parent loses a child...You're heart just breaks."
Bates tells 12News she grew close to the Hardy family when Harvey destroyed their Pinewood homes.
With a daughter of her own, Bates says she can feel the pain of the Hardy's.
So, she went online and created a Meal Train.
"I opened up three weeks of dates that people can sign up," Bates said. "They sign up to bring a meal to the hardy's each day."
The Meal Train link is public and the list is already filling up.
"That was something that I could do that would take some stress off of the family with everything they're going through," Bates said.
Along with food, Bates tells 12News people can also donate money on the website.
"What we're really trying to focus on now is donations to help the family out with the needs that they are going to be facing," Bates said.
She says Hardy was taking his girlfriend, Destiny Sells, 20, of Port Arthur, home when the crashed occurred.
Sells was killed in the wreck as well.
According to Bates, the Hardy family is still trying to process it all.
"It's a shock, it's devastating," Bates said. "They're just doing the best they can at this point."
There are other ways to help support the Hardy family:
- A "Shane Hardy Funeral Fund" account has been set up through BBVA Compass Bank. People can put money into the accounts at any of its branch locations.
- PayPal donations can be sent to the email of Hardy's mother at kellysetx@gmail.com
