Tina Exposito sat with her 19-year-old son, trying to explain the importance of Thanksgiving as if he were a kindergartner.
Not because their family never celebrated the holiday.
A hit-and-run wreck, which killed his 17-year-old sister, Melanie, left Travis with chronic brain damage. The pair were riding together on a bicycle on East Colonial Drive in the early-morning hours of Dec. 6.
Almost a year later, he doesn’t remember much about Thanksgiving.
Even the holiday decorations they made as kids looked foreign to him.
“Though I am blessed to have him here, he is not the same son that I raised for 18 years,” Exposito said.
In the 11 months since the still-unsolved crash, Travis has learned how to eat and walk again.
But his memory isn’t the same, and the family continues to struggle with his sister’s death.
“As a mom, it’s really hard because, at times, you want to feel happy because he’s improving,” Exposito said. “But you feel guilty because my daughter never had the chance to fight for her life.”
‘The day from hell’
The day before the crash was normal for Exposito and her three children: Travis, Melanie and Joseph.
Travis, then 18, went to work at Wendy’s. Exposito and her “mini-me,” Melanie, discussed how they would pull out the Christmas ornaments the next day and decorate the tree while playing their favorite songs — including Mariah Carey’s version of “All I Want For Christmas.”
“We play that and we goof around, dancing like in the music video,” Exposito said.
Around 11 p.m., Melanie found out that her ex-boyfriend had been saying “some nasty things about her,” the mother recalled. Melanie wanted to go confront the boy. But her mother said they would go over to the boy’s house the next day and talk to his parents. Everyone went to bed.
After Travis returned from work that night, Melanie told him about her ex-boyfriend. Wanting to defend his sister and best friend, Travis rode his sister on the back of his bicycle to the boy’s house.
Exposito, asleep at the time, didn’t know her children were gone until she woke up about 3 a.m.
“I tried to text Melanie. No response,” the mother said. “I prayed, said, ‘God, please, let them be safe.'”
About 3:20 a.m., a black, two-door Mercedes slammed into Travis and Melanie on the eastbound side of East Colonial Drive near Dean Road.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the siblings were not in a crosswalk while riding from the north side of East Colonial to the south side.
The impact sent Travis and Melanie airborne. The Mercedes driver didn’t stop.
A trooper later spotted the teens, both seniors at University High School. Melanie died at the scene. Her brother flat-lined but was revived at the hospital.
“About 4:30 a.m., the phone rings, and it’s a number not registered in my phone,” Exposito recalled.
It was someone from Orlando Regional Medical Center, telling Exposito that her son was there in critical condition. The caller didn’t mention Melanie.
Exposito learned about her daughter at the hospital.
“I lost it. I screamed,” Exposito said. “She’s not here, and I don’t know what to expect of my son. They told me it’s a very slim chance that he’ll make it. I was getting ready to lose two kids. It was the day from hell.”
Rebirth day
When Travis came out of a coma Dec. 23, he didn’t know what had happened. He didn’t remember working at Wendy’s, didn’t recognize some of his closest friends and couldn’t recall the crash that killed his sister.
The brain injury affected his memory, speech and mobility. He suffered a punctured lung and a shattered left leg, which was later reconstructed.
He stopped breathing at home in February and was rushed to the hospital. Through May, he would undergo four surgeries for his lungs.
“It’s like you have a newborn all over again,” said Exposito, who calls Dec. 6 his rebirth day.
“You have to teach him how to talk, how to write, how to walk, how to eat. Just anything as simple as using the restroom has to be taught all over again,” she said.
Travis, who loved skateboarding and playing football, now uses a walker to move around. He recently learned how to use the PlayStation again with his 16-year-old brother, Joseph.
Exposito, a single mother and cancer survivor, hasn’t worked since the crash. She takes care of Travis 24 hours a day — giving him medication every four hours, bathing him, helping him to the bathroom, brushing his teeth, making his food and taking him to various therapy sessions.
“He looks at pictures of how he used to be,” Exposito said. “He has now reached the point that he feels that he’s 19. He’s a man. But the reality is, he has to depend on mom.”
twalden@tribune.com or 407-420-5620
