VIDEO: Candlelight Vigil For Mara Steves Unites Community Once Again

Friends, family and others paid their respects to the late Steves on Monday evening at the crash site where she was killed one year ago. Click here to watch the video.

Unlike many in this community, I never actually had the pleasure of meeting the late Mara Steves, but somehow, I feel as if I now know this beautiful soul.

As a journalist, I am supposed to remain neutral, not get too involved in a story, or a source. But this story really touched me, from her funeral on a cold February day in Corona Del Mar to the outpouring of the community, even to this day.

I never fail to look at the crash site when I pass it, for it's easy to see since there are usually candles or some form of memento someone has left behind. 

Through her friends and colleagues, I have learned a lot about this woman who stood for so much. I've learned she was a giver, a leader, someone people looked up to and gravitated toward.

I've learned that she has two growing teenagers that she left behind, devoted parents and a loving husband.

I've learned that she was an animal lover and that she volunteered her time endlessly, effortlessly and gladly to her community time and time again during her lifetime.

Steves, 48, died Feb. 13, a few short blocks from her home when a car collided into her that fateful Sunday morning as she knelt near a curb corralling a dog she saved from traffic earlier. She was robbed of seeing her children graduate, get married and never having the opportunity of growing old with her husband, John.

I was working when I heard the screaming sirens and later learned of the horrific accident through many shaken readers. For that, I am grateful and thankful that they looked to and trusted Laguna Niguel Patch to follow her story. I still receive emails, notes and inquiries about Steves regularly. Her story rocked this community to its core.

Now one year later on the anniversary of her death, we are still covering her story and we will continue to do so, never forgetting what a special woman Steves was. 

She was honored on Monday evening during a quiet, candlelight vigil that once again brought the community together. 

Something tells me, she would have been proud.