Just a few weeks short of her 75th birthday, the Half Moon Bay resident was driving her weekday commute to Pacifica on Oct. 13 when a car driving south crossed the center divide and smashed into her head-on.
The southbound driver, 37-year-old Michael Abando of Daly City, sustained no major injuries, according to California Highway Patrol spokesman Shawn Chase. CHP investigators are looking into pursuing felony charges of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving against Abando. Such charges can carry anywhere from one to 20 years in state prison, Chase said. “It just depends on the circumstances.”
 The Rev. Laurie Andersen walks the labyrinth behind Coastside Lutheran Church that will be dedicated in honor of Marilyn Bosshart during a service Sunday. Bosshart was killed last week in a traffic collision on Devil'€™s Slide. |
Friends of Bosshart, who was a secretary for the city of Pacifica, say they’ll miss her positive and inclusive attitude, her sunny disposition and an underlying dark sense of humor.
“I hear her in my head even though she’s gone,” said Montara resident Bob Ptacek, a friend of Bosshart’s from church.
Ptacek said Bosshart was a relatively reserved person save for when she was in her element, working on church projects. Bosshart chaired the Worship Committee at Coastside Lutheran Church. She was responsible for setting up communion ceremonies, improving youth and family ministry, and organizing special worship services. She helped out in other ways as well.
Perhaps her crowning achievement as committee chair is a stone labyrinth, about 40 feet in diameter, situated behind the church, which she and Ptacek designed and completed last year. The labyrinth will be dedicated to her at a service on Sunday.
“That’s the sad part,” said Ptacek, thinking about Bosshart’s unyielding work ethic. “She didn’t get that end-of-life relaxing moment that we all think, as we get older and older, that we’re all entitled to.”
Alison Hefner, Bosshart’s daughter, says her mother loved her day job assisting people – about as much as she loved animals. Bosshart had a particular affinity for dogs, and was a member of several online pet-lovers’ chat groups.
Hefner said it was always abundantly clear that Bosshart had a deep appreciation for Devil’s Slide. Hefner said her mother “knew that stretch of road like the back of her hand.”
“She felt so blessed to be able to drive back and forth to work every day through such gorgeous scenery,” Hefner said. “Even though the road was dangerous, and she was looking forward to the tunnel being completed, she did feel sadness that she would never be able to drive that way any more.”
In an e-mail to the Review, Hefner wrote about plans to stay at her mother’s home during the pumpkin festival last weekend, a 25-year tradition the two shared. “Instead of looking forward to that, I am planning a funeral.”
A service for Bosshart is being held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Coastside Lutheran Church, 900 Cabrillo Highway, in Half Moon Bay.
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