TYLER, Texas — Best friends Staci Sexton and Jacob Ray lost their lives after a boat crash on Lake Tyler early Saturday morning. Now as officials search for answers, the families of the victims are searching for ways to cope with the sudden loss.
"I was at work; I lost it. I couldn't believe it," Sexton's mother Cindy Jackson said.
Staci Sexton and Ray, both 38, were two of the three people in a flat-bottom boat struck by a fishing boat around 6 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, in the Whitehouse area of Lake Tyler. The other woman in the flat-bottom boat was hospitalized for her injuries.
Jackson is still in shock over the loss of her daughter.
"Everybody was a friend to her no matter what. She never met a stranger, no matter what. She was the light of the room," Jackson said.
She was also light to her son and four daughters.
"She was loving, and she really cared about making a better future than she did," her daughter Kaylee Sexton said.
Ray is remembered by those who knew him as someone who anyone could lean on. His cousin is making plans to celebrate his memory.
"Me and his dad are going to do a lot of stuff that him and Jake (Jacob Ray) didn't get to do were going to do it for Jake. So it's going to be a lot of memorializing, a lot of celebrating his life," his cousin Jacob Burkatt said.
Jackson said the love and support from the friends and the community has been awesome. Love and laughter are helping Staci's daughters Kaylee and Autumn cope with the devastating loss of their mom.
"Just trying to laugh, finding some kind of joke in every situation. I know that she would want us to laugh," Kaylee Sexton said.
And the family said being with each other through this is what keeps them pushing forward each day.
"Accidents happen all the time. When accidents happen, everybody’s just has to come together, and cope with it. That's all you can do," Jackson said.
Kaylee Sexton added that she wants people to know that the family doesn't blame the situation.
"It was just a horrible accident," she said.
If you would like to donate to a GoFundMe to help the families with expenses, click here.