Friends are rallying for Ruby Gonzalez’s family after the crash

A young mother is dead and her husband remains hospitalized after Dallas police said the couple was hit and killed by a wrong-way driver along US-75 early Monday.

“She’s been that person connecting everybody. She can get this whole group together,” said Samantha Cosio.

Amanda Martinez, Evelyn Duarte and Samantha Cosio said 30-year-old Ruby Gonzalez was the glue of their friend group.

“Ruby had this energy where we just all gravitated towards her,” said Cosio.

They say it’s hard to comprehend that someone who loved life is suddenly gone.

“It’s just a nightmare,” said Evelyn Duarte.

Dallas police said Gonzalez and her husband were driving in the southbound lanes of North Central Expressway near Royal Lane, when they were hit head on by a wrong-way driver just after one a.m. Monday.

The wrong-way driver and Gonzalez were killed.

Friends say her husband, Kevin, remains in critical condition in the ICU.

Her parents have taken over caring for their three children.

“She was always with her children. She lived for them, and now I’m so, so worried about them. I’m praying so hard that Kevin will make it and he’ll be ok, but they’ll never have what they had with Ruby being gone,” said Amanda Martinez.

The couple’s youngest is just two months old.

“He’ll never get to know how beautiful and how much of a light that she was,” she said.

Friends have started an online fundraiser for the family. They say Gonzalez gave them each other.

Now they’re stepping in to fill the gaping hole she leaves behind, while trying to live life a little more like Ruby.

“She taught me how to live and you know, take the trip, wear the dress, put the heels on, you know, enjoy your life while you can, take the pictures now,” said Martinez.

Police say the wrong-way driver died at the scene. The medical examiner identified him as 23-year-old Christopher Ourfalian.