Teacher, soldier tells father ‘the weather is getting bad’ before she dies in crash

CLEVELAND (WOIO/Gray News) - A 25-year-old woman, who was both a teacher and a soldier, was killed in a car crash in West Virginia Sunday.

After her death, Alexis Vega’s legacy has continued to grow within her home community in Ohio.

Her father, Richard Vega, said she was a cherished part of Garrett Morgan School of Engineering and to her brothers and sisters in the Army.

He employers at the school said Alexis had already served in the past and was looking forward to doing it again before tragedy struck.

“She was loved by the school, she was loved by her soldiers,” he said.

Richard Vega said he and his daughter were inseparable.

He said Alexis gave him a calendar before she left for training which told him how long it would be until she would be back home.

He said she would have been back home in just 12 days on the day she died.

Richard Vega said she had been updating him regularly on her trip.

“She said to me, ‘Dad, I gotta get off the phone now. The weather’s getting bad,‘” he said.

The moment he was told she had died, he said his world changed forever.

“I had three state troopers’ police cars knocking on my door, they told me, ‘Richard we need to speak with you,’ and they broke the news to me,” he said.

Thousands of people have expressed their sentiments towards the Vega family through social media after the devastating news.

“I am not shocked of all that, I am not shocked,” Richard Vega said. “She wanted to teach in the inner cities, she wanted to reach out to the kids in the inner city, and I believe she accomplished that.”

The Vega family plans on holding a service for Alexis, but no date has yet been set.

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