There were very few open seats in the Lakewood Church Chapel as family and friends gathered to remember 10-year-old Dalilah Gonzales.
The child was killed when a suspected drunk driver hit the car she was riding in Sunday afternoon with her mom and family friend, Stephanie Salazar.
Felix Vega was charged with intoxication manslaughter in her death.
“You took away a little girl that everybody loved,” close family friend Sarah Oliver said with tears in her eyes. “You took away people’s best friend. There’s an emptiness in so many of us.”
The day of the crash, Dalilah was headed home to take her dogs on a walk.
“She had plans to go walk them at the dog park that day,” Oliver said. “Now they just run around aimlessly, like they don’t know what’s going on, just like the rest of us.”
Friends of her family said she loved dogs. People who attended her funeral wore ribbons with paws and dogs on them.
Handwritten cards were hung on the wall at Dalilah’s funeral. One said, “You changed all of our hearts and cured them with happiness.”
“One said you changed my life when my dad passed away, you were there and you made me laugh when I didn’t want to laugh,” Salazar said. “And it’s like, she was 10.”
