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تعزيات قداسة البابا شنودة
تتقدم الهيئة القبطية الأمريكية بخالص العزاء لعائلات
العزيزات الصغيرات
دلال (ديدى) وشقيقتهاإيمان(ميمى)حانالله ، وسـيمون بطرس من
كنيسة مار مرقس بـ مونتريه
و ماري دميان من كنيسة سانت مارى سكرامنتو وكريستين يوسف من كنيسة مار جرجس
سان هوزيه
ونسأل الله أن يكون مكانهن فى
أحضان القديسين ويمنح عائلاتهن ومعارفهن الصبر والإيمان
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Dalal Hanalla |
Iman Hanalla
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Simone Botros
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Mary Demian
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Christine Youssef
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Words from
friends |
To express your feelings |
If I knew
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Posted on Mon, Mar. 31, 2003 |
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Posted on
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Apr 01,
2003 |
Posted on Tue, Apr. 01, 2003 |
Posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2003 |
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Posted on Mon, Mar. 31, 2003 |
Posted on Sat, Mar. 29, 2003 |
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Lenten retreat turns to tragedy
By Michael Kolber -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Monday, March 31, 2003
As their three vans hurtled toward Barstow early Saturday
morning, about 40 Northern California teens and young adults
were looking forward to their annual Lenten retreat of prayer
and rest.
What happened just before 3 a.m. left the group in
spiritual need more than ever. One of the vans swerved off
Interstate 15 and rolled over, killing five young women just
20 minutes from their destination, the St. Anthony Monastery,
the country's only Coptic Orthodox monastery.
Raymond Souweha, 23, of San Jose said Sunday he was the
only one of the van's 14 occupants to survive without serious
injury, only a bruised and cut face that required stitches.
"All of us were screaming and yelling," Souweha said. "It's
very, very tragic."
Souweha said Peter Demian, 27, of Mountain View, had been
driving the entire seven-hour trip, although he had taken
breaks. Just before the crash, Demian dozed off. Many of his
passengers were already asleep, but one realized the van was
sliding from its lane and called out Demian's name.
Startled awake, Demian jerked the steering wheel, but his
van swerved out of control, onto the shoulder and down a
gradual slope, Souweha said.
The California Highway Patrol said 11 of the van's 14
occupants were not wearing seat belts and were ejected.
Dalal Hannalla, 25, and her sister Iman Hannalla, 24, both
of Salinas, died at the scene. Their brother had planned to
attend the retreat, but couldn't make it at the last minute,
said the Rev. Anthony Hanna of Concord's Coptic Orthodox
church. Dalal Hannalla was a recent graduate of the University
of California, Davis, and Iman Hannalla was a student at
California State University, Sacramento.
Mary Demian, 21, of Fair Oaks, a mechanical engineering
major at UC Davis, died at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
in San Bernardino County.
Simone Botros, 21, of Monterey, and Christine Youssef, 17,
of San Jose, also died at the scene.
Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Regional, Victoria Brown, 20,
of Redding, was in stable condition; Lucy Saeed, 21, of
Antelope, was in critical condition; and Nancy Salam, 25, of
San Jose, was in serious condition. Hospital staff did not
release the name or condition of a 16-year-old girl being
treated.
The driver, Peter Demian, was in critical condition with a
major head injury at Loma Linda University Medical Center. The
other passengers had been treated and released at area
hospitals.
In Sacramento and San Francisco, Coptic Orthodox churches
were shaken as the news reverberated through the tight-knit
Egyptian community.
The travelers were members of a half dozen Northern
California Coptic churches and gathered at a church in Hayward
to load the vans.
Hanna traveled to Barstow Saturday to assist the victims.
"Everybody knows everybody. It's like a great big family,"
Hanna said. "It's a great loss for our church."
Joe Hanna, 23, of Danville, said the remaining group
continued on to the monastery.
"The high spiritual level that the monastery offers was
able to fill them with peace," said Joe Hanna. "They all know
that this was from God."
About the Writer
---------------------------
The Bee's Michael Kolber can be reached at (916) 478-2671 or
mkolber@sacbee.com.
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Posted on Tues,
Apr 01,
2003 |
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Service today for
three killed in desert crash
By KEVIN
HOWE
khowe@montereyherald.comThey were just five miles from the end of a
trip they had made before, a religious pilgrimage
to the Southern California desert.
But the crash of their van ended the trip and
the lives of three young Monterey County women
along with two others from Northern California's
small Coptic Orthodox community.
Today, the Monterey congregation will mourn the
deaths of Dalal and Iman Hanalla, sisters who
lived in the Los Laureles area between Monterey
and Salinas, and Monterey resident Simone Botros.
Dalal Hanalla was 25, her sister a year younger.
Botros was just 21.
The local women and two others were killed when
the church van overturned early Saturday as it
approached the St. Anthony Monastery in the Mojave
Desert community of Yermo.
"It was like the Challenger accident. Ten
minutes before they arrive, the accident happens,"
Farid Hanalla, father of Iman and Dalal, said
Monday while he was making burial arrangements at
San Carlos Cemetery.
Farid Hanalla and his wife, Mary, heard the
horrible news by telephone from church members, as
did Simone Botros' parents, Gamal and Jeannette.
"They were good girls. It is our culture,"
Hanalla said of his daughters, "very polite, very
honest.
"I know they are in paradise now. That's why I
have taken this shock like a man."
Their brother, Hany Hanalla, 21, a student at
CSU-Sacramento, had planned to make the trip as
well, "but God stepped in," his father said.
"He had a test that week. God wanted to leave
me one."
The Hanalla sisters graduated from Monterey
High School.
Dalal Hanalla recently graduated from UC-Davis
and was to celebrate her engagement party this
month, her father said. She worked for a brokerage
firm in Sacramento and "always helped people," he
said.
Iman Hanalla, also a student at CSU-Sacramento,
was "the smile of the house," her father said.
Both young women regularly made the annual
religious retreat to St. Anthony's in the desert
for a weekend of prayer and contemplation by young
people in the Coptic Church.
Simone Botros was due to graduate from
CSU-Monterey Bay next December, her mother said.
She had graduated from Seaside High School in
1998, then attended Monterey Peninsula College.
Her brother, Antoine Botros of Monterey, was not
on the trip.
Each of the three was born in Cairo, Egypt, and
moved to the Central Coast because each had a
parent teaching Arabic at the Defense Language
Institute.
Hada Salib had known all three women since they
were girls in her Sunday school class. All three
were active in the newly formed St. Mark's Coptic
Orthodox Church in Monterey, which started in
July. Before they established their own
congregation, they would attend services at other
Coptic churches in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The young women were active in the Coptic youth
group and were "very religious; they liked the
monastery, liked the tradition, they were very
sociable," Salib said.
Salib recalled Simone Botros as having "a very
positive attitude."
"She liked everybody, and she drew you into a
conversation whether you wanted to or not, a very
good, very loving daughter and a caring person.
Just an angel."
Salib said she was also hard-working and "very
inquisitive," a child who would ask questions and
demand answers about God and religion in Sunday
school .
"I guess she knows all the reasons we don't
know now."
Also killed in the accident were Christine
Youssef, 17, of San Jose, who died at the scene,
and Mary Demian, 21, of Fair Oaks, who succumbed
en route to a hospital.
The van, driven by Peter Demian, 27, of San
Jose -- no relation to Mary Demian -- was one of
three in a convoy bound for the monastery,
according to the California Highway Patrol. The
driver suffered major head injuries and several
other passengers sustained serious injuries.
The 2002 Ford 15-passenger van was northbound
on Interstate 15 at 70 mph when it began to drift
toward a vehicle in the next lane at a section of
the freeway with a slight bend, CHP investigators
reported.
The driver swerved several times while trying
to straighten out, sending the van out of control,
the highway patrol said. Officers reported that 11
of the 14 in the van were not wearing seat belts
and were ejected onto the center divider.
The driver, Salib said, was a church deacon, "a
very nice gentleman, very respectful."
The services are set for 3:30 p.m. at St.
Angela's Catholic Church in Pacific Grove at 3:30
p.m.
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mont2 |
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Posted on Tue, Apr. 01, 2003 |
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Three
women killed in accident
Monterey: Van crashes on
church trip
By KEVIN
HOWE
khowe@montereyherald.comThey were just five miles from the end of a
trip they had made before, a religious pilgrimage
to the Southern California desert.
But the crash of their van ended the trip and
the lives of three young Monterey County women
along with two others from Northern California's
small Coptic Orthodox community.
Today, the Monterey congregation will mourn the
deaths of Dalal and Iman Hanalla, sisters who
lived in the Los Laureles area between Monterey
and Salinas, and Monterey resident Simone Botros.
Dalal Hanalla was 25, her sister a year younger.
Botros was just 21.
The local women and two others were killed when
the church van overturned early Saturday as it
approached the St. Anthony Monastery in the Mojave
Desert community of Yermo.
"It was like the (space shuttle Columbia)
accident. Ten minutes before they arrive, the
accident happens," Farid Hanalla, father of Iman
and Dalal, said Monday while he was making burial
arrangements at San Carlos Cemetery.
Farid Hanalla and his wife, Mary, heard the
news by telephone from church members, as did
Simone Botros' parents, Gamal and Jeannette.
"They were good girls. It is our culture,"
Hanalla said of his daughters, "very polite, very
honest.
"I know they are in paradise now. That's why I
have taken this shock like a man."
Their brother, Hany Hanalla, 21, a student at
CSU-Sacramento, had planned to make the trip as
well, "but God stepped in," his father said.
"He had a test that week. God wanted to leave
me one."
The Hanalla sisters graduated from Monterey
High School.
Dalal Hanalla recently graduated from UC-Davis
and was to celebrate her engagement party this
month, her father said. She worked for a brokerage
firm in Sacramento and "always helped people," he
said.
Iman Hanalla, also a student at CSU-Sacramento,
was "the smile of the house," her father said.
Both young women regularly made the annual retreat
to St. Anthony's in the desert for a weekend of
prayer and contemplation by young people in the
Coptic Church.
Simone Botros was due to graduate from
CSU-Monterey Bay next December, her mother said.
She had graduated from Seaside High School in
1998, then attended Monterey Peninsula College.
Her brother, Antoine Botros of Monterey, was not
on the trip.
Each of the three was born in Cairo, Egypt, and
moved to the Central Coast because each had a
parent teaching Arabic at the Defense Language
Institute.
Hada Salib had known all three women since they
were girls in her Sunday school class. All three
were active in the newly formed St. Mark's Coptic
Orthodox Church in Monterey, which started in
July. Before they established their own
congregation, they would attend services at other
Coptic churches in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The young women were active in the Coptic youth
group and were "very religious; they liked the
monastery, liked the tradition, they were very
sociable," Salib said.
Salib recalled Simone Botros as having "a very
positive attitude."
"She liked everybody, and she drew you into a
conversation whether you wanted to or not, a very
good, very loving daughter and a caring person.
Just an angel."
Salib said she was also hard-working and "very
inquisitive," a child who would ask questions and
demand answers about God and religion in Sunday
school.
"I guess she knows all the reasons we don't
know now."
Also killed in the accident were Christine
Youssef, 17, of San Jose, who died at the scene,
and Mary Demian, 21, of Fair Oaks, who died en
route to a hospital.
The van, driven by Peter Demian, 27, of San
Jose -- no relation to Mary Demian -- was one of
three in a convoy bound for the monastery, the
California Highway Patrol said. The driver
suffered major head injuries and several other
passengers suffered serious injuries.
The 2002 Ford 15-passenger van was northbound
on Interstate 15 at 70 mph when it began to drift
toward a vehicle in the next lane at a section of
the freeway with a slight bend, CHP investigators
reported.
The driver swerved several times while trying
to straighten out, sending the van out of control,
the highway patrol said. Officers reported that 11
of the 14 in the van were not wearing seat belts
and were ejected onto the center divider.
The driver, Salib said, was a church deacon, "a
very nice gentleman, very respectful."
The services are set for 3:30 p.m. at St.
Angela's Catholic Church in Pacific Grove at 3:30
p.m.
Kevin Howe can be
reached at 646-4416.
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mont3 |
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| Posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2003 |
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State news
BARSTOW
5 killed when van overturns on Interstate
Five people on their way to a religious retreat
died early Saturday when their van overturned on
Interstate 15, authorities said.
Five others, including the driver, were
seriously injured in the 2:55 a.m. crash north of
Barstow, the California Highway Patrol reported.
Eleven of the 14 people inside the van were not
wearing seat belts and were ejected, CHP said. The
bodies were strewn from the center divider to the
edge of the highway.
The van was one of three in a convoy carrying
students and others to a monastery near Barstow.
The cause remained under investigation.
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Local
News
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Posted on Mon, Mar. 31, 2003 |
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Crash victim `an angel'
FAMILY GATHERS TO MOURN SAN JOSE
GIRL KILLED ON RELIGIOUS OUTING
By Karen de Sá
Mercury News
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The Saturday expedition from Bay Area Coptic churches
to a desert monastery in Barstow was supposed to be a
chance for teens and college students to renew their faith
in Egyptian Christian theology.
Instead, just 20 minutes from their destination, St.
Anthony's sanctuary, their van spun out of control and
overturned on Interstate 15 -- killing five passengers and
injuring nine others.
On Sunday, dozens of friends and worshipers who are
part of a close-knit circle of Egyptian immigrants
gathered at the family home of 17-year-old Christine
Yousef, who died in the predawn highway crash in Southern
California.
``The best word for Christine is she was an angel,''
said her father, Maher Mankaryous. ``We believe this is
not a death, because she's going to heaven. She's going to
a better life.''
The 2:55 a.m. accident occurred on a stretch of highway
known for fatalities. Most passengers weren't wearing seat
belts when the driver, Peter Demian of Mountain View,
tried to pass a big rig and turned too sharply to the
left, ending up in the center divider. Demian then
over-corrected on a right-hand turn, causing the
15-passenger Ford Econoline van to flip, flinging its
occupants onto the asphalt, dirt and shrubs, California
Highway Patrol officer Rob Roberts said Sunday.
Sisters Iman Hanalla, 24, of Davis and Dalal Hanalla,
25, of Sacramento also were killed in the crash, along
with Simone Botros, 21, of Monterey and Mary Demian, 21,
of Gold River. Nine others were hospitalized, undergoing
multiple surgeries with injuries that threatened arms,
legs and brain functions.
Among those injured are Peter Demian, 28; Ranya Botros,
20, of Sunnyvale and San Jose residents Nancy Salama, 25,
and Raymond Souweah, 23.
Last year, 92 people died on the same stretch of
highway. Saturday's accident brings this year's death toll
to 25.
For years, the Bay Area network of Egyptian orthodox
churches has sent youths to the Barstow monastery on
all-night drives that allow them to arrive well before the
early morning services.
But Sunday, at the San Jose apartment Christine shared
with her parents and two sisters, Marina, 14, and Phoebe,
10, there was little dwelling on what could have been. The
deeply religious family clung to the belief that God chose
Christine as heaven-bound. And to comfort themselves, they
accepted hugs and baked goods from a steady stream of
visitors.
Stories about Christine
Her sisters bubbled with their favorite Christine
stories -- how she insisted on taking school books with
her on every family outing, her picky eating habits and
her aversion to leftovers.
Christine, her family said, was driven and devoted to
helping others. The Prospect High senior was a Sunday
school teacher, an organist and a scholar. She learned
English only three years ago but was an award-winning
member of debate and oratory teams. She had been accepted
to five universities and received some scholarships.
Christine is praised as her church's most active youth
leader -- drawing other kids into faith through religious
puppet shows and hymns she translated from her native
Arabic.
Christine's father brought his family to the South Bay
in 1999 from Egypt. He left a job as an accounting
professor at Zagzig University outside Cairo to pursue a
better life for his family. In San Jose, he had to swap
academia for a job as a cashier for a time.
Role model for siblings
Mankaryous, who works as a part-time instructor at Holy
Names College in Oakland, was an inspiration for
Christine. She, in turn, urged on her younger siblings.
Marina said that without Christine, she would never have
survived her first year in high school.
``She was a really outgoing person, and I'm really
shy,'' Marina said. ``She'd always say, `You have to talk
to people.' ''
At St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Campbell,
Christine worked closely with Peter Demian, who remains in
a coma with a serious scalp injury at Loma Linda
University Medical Center.
The Rev. Salib Girgis asked his Sunday morning
congregation of about 180 families at the church to pray
for all of the passengers and Peter -- a deacon, board
member and popular youth leader known for his cautious
driving.
Northern California is home to about 1,000 members of
the Coptic community, with churches in the South Bay,
Hayward and Monterey.
Abouna, as Girgis is called, has had a grueling
weekend reassuring them. Shuttling between hospitals and
the homes of the grieving families, he has struggled to
get the message across that it was time for these young
people to meet God. He's having a hard time fully
accepting it himself.
``It's a really hard job, convincing them that this is
not a bad thing,'' he said. ``It's not easy to lose five
of your children together.''
Mercury News Staff Writer
Yomi S. Wronge contributed to this report. Contact
Karen de Sá at
kdesa@mercurynews.com or (408) 295-3984.
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Posted on Sat, Mar. 29, 2003 |
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S.J. teen among 5 killed, 9
injured in van crash
RELIGIOUS GROUP WAS HEADED TO
MONASTERY NEAR BARSTOW
By Michael Cronk
and Joshua L. Kwan
Mercury News
Five passengers, including a San Jose girl, were killed
Saturday on the way to a religious retreat when their van
went out of control and overturned on Interstate 15 near
Barstow, the California Highway Patrol said.
Those who died at the scene were identified as
Christine Youssef, 17, of San Jose, and Dalal Hannalla,
Iman Hannalla and Simone Botors, who the CHP said were all
from the Sacramento area.
Mary Demian, also from the Sacramento area, was
transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in
Colton, where she later died of her injuries.
The other nine people traveling in the van were
injured, three of them critically. The driver, Peter
Demian, 27, of Mountain View, and a San Jose woman and
Sunnyvale woman, were among those sustaining serious to
moderate injuries. They were transported to area
hospitals.
The white 2002 Ford Super Duty 15-passenger van was one
of three vehicles in a convoy that left Friday night from
St. Antonius Coptic Orthodox Church in Hayward carrying a
group of youths from as many as six Egyptian Coptic
churches in Northern California, said a member of the
Hayward church who asked not to be named.
``It's pretty devastating,'' said the man, who had
attended retreats in the past with many of the crash
victims. The churches -- including St. George Coptic
Church in Campbell and St. Mark's in Monterey -- often
hold joint retreats where youths get to know each other.
``It's one family, basically, and we're all brothers
and sisters. We know each other fairly well,'' he said.
The group was headed to a St. Anthony Monastery in Yermo,
outside of Barstow near the Nevada border, he said.
The crash occurred at 2:55 a.m., 11 miles north of
Barstow and 20 minutes from the monastery, according to
the CHP. The van was traveling around 70 mph when it began
to drift toward another vehicle in an adjacent lane. It
swerved as the driver tried to straighten it out and the
vehicle left the road and into the center divider where it
overturned, the CHP said.
Eleven of the 14 people in the van were not wearing
seat belts and were ejected, said CHP Sgt. Daniel Laza,
who responded to the crash. The victims were strewed over
a distance of 170 feet from the center divider to the edge
of the highway.
``It shows how important it is to wear seat belts. When
someone is thrown out at 70 mph, it causes incredible
trauma to the body,'' Laza said. ``There's no doubt that
if everyone had been using their seat belts, the fatal and
serious injuries would have been greatly reduced.''
Mary Demian's aunt, Samia Demian of Foster City, said
her niece ``was an angel.''
Demian, 21, was an engineering student at the
University of California-Davis, where she was active in an
Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church.
Peter Demian, who is not related to Mary, suffered a
major head injury and was taken to Loma Linda University
Medical Center.
Others taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center with
critical injuries were identified as Victoria Brown, 20,
of Redding; Nancy Salama, 25, of San Jose, and Lucy Saeed.
The name of a 16-year-old female was not immediately
available.
Four other passengers, including Ronya Botors, 20, of
Sunnyvale, sustained moderate injuries and were also taken
to the medical center.
Mercury News wire services
contributed to this report. Contact Michael Cronk at
mcronk@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5063.
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