STARKE, Fla. – A woman and her 3-year-old son died early Sunday morning in a head-on collision in Bradford County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. A 6-year-old pulled from the family's minivan was hospitalized with serious injuries.
The two-car crash took place on State Road 100 at Southeast 14th Avenue around 6 a.m. Troopers said Shelby Rosenthal, 29, and Zander Rosenthal, 3, were killed when the Ford minivan they were in crossed the centerline and crashed into a Dodge pickup truck.
The driver of a Dodge Ram struck by the minivan had minor injuries from the crash.
The children's godmother, Kathy Mercer, remembered her friend Shelby a fun-loving person who "would get you through the tough times" and her youngest boy as "our blue-eyed smile baby."
"Those boys were her life," Mercer said.
Rosenthal worked as a hairstylist in Georgia. Mercer said she's not sure where Rosenthal was going before dawn Sunday, but knew she was in the process of moving.
Mercer said the older boy will turn 7 on Friday.
"That boy is going to get me through this. We're going to get each other through this," she said.
