STOCKTON, Calif. — A Stockton family, familiar with tragedy, is once again trying to hold themselves together.
Family members said 73-year-old Anita Leos died in a tragic accident while riding her bike along Lower Sacramento Road in Stockton on July 4.
“We're just all trying to live and survive without her being here,” her daughter Tina Atad told ABC10.
Anita Leos was the glue that held her family together, guiding them through adversity and teaching them life's lessons.
"She taught us almost everything a young woman should know as far as morals and dignity and love and loyalty, forgiveness," said Dominque Renteria, Anita's granddaughter.
It's a big loss for a family that was already too familiar with tragedy. Tina, her brother John Leos Jr., and Anita were all at Cleveland Elementary School on Jan. 17, 1989. Anita was a yard duty and her children were students on the day of the Stockton schoolyard shooting.
"That day was one of the scariest days of us being kids, of our lives, because we, (John) lost friends in his classroom. They were out and his class was outside playing when they started shooting at them. And his friends were just dropping in front of them; his friends passed away," said Tina.
It was a harrowing tragedy that caused Anita and her husband John Leos to hold their children all the closer. It was a closeness that echoes among the newer generations of the family.
"We're a close-knit family... We're here every day with both of them," said Alex, Anita's son-in-law.
Tina said Anita had gone to Walgreens on her bike when the tragedy happened. She learned from her mother's neighbor's that an accident with a bike happened nearby and called her mother to make sure she was alright but got no response.
"We pulled up on scene on Lower Sacramento Road, and I knew automatically that it was my mom,” Tina said.
According to Stockton Police Department, no charges have been issued in the accident. The investigation into the crash and what led up to it is ongoing.
The 73-year-old Anita was an avid bike rider, something she spread to her children and her grandchildren. Tina said her mother was not an elderly woman, emphasizing that her mother was young in mind and in life.
"My mom was strong. She was just built tough,” said Tina.
Her husband John Leos was known to make bikes from scratch, taking them apart and stripping them down. He also built them for his family.
"Every day, my mom or dad... my sister would always be riding bikes. It was just a big part of us. I mean, we're always going somewhere, going to an aunt's house, going to my grandma's house. We're always riding bikes," said John Leos Jr.
While Anita is gone, the family she left behind is still there along with the lessons she taught along the way.
"She always taught us to love and to love no matter what and to always be together and be there for one another, always," said Renteria.
“She was fun. She was our crazy grandma, life of the Party. Everybody knew her by her laugh, and she was so outgoing. She was our butterfly, our social butterfly,” she added.
The family set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for her memorial. It is available HERE.
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