The sweater Remona Charles wore Wednesday night was not her own. And that was the point. It was her 20-year-old son’s, and it was one of the last shirts he wore before his death in Tempe on Monday.
“I can smell his cologne,” Charles said while wearing her son Chezray Young’s black work sweater.
That scent and the memories it triggered provided some measure of comfort. But only some.
“I have to learn to put one foot in front of the other,” Charles said.
Stanley Chu slammed into Young’s car going approximately 70 mph on a 40 mph section of University Drive early Monday morning, according to Tempe Police.
Chu refused a sobriety test; he was booked on suspicion of DUI and manslaughter anyway. Chu remained in jail Wednesday night.
Charles moved her family, including her first-born son Chezray, to Laveen from Wisconsin several years ago. The move was triggered by a layoff. The family motto after the move was “finish strong,” Charles said.
"Told you momma [that] I’d make you proud of me,’” Charles said her son told her after his high school graduation. He’d finished strong.
And now she has to try to do the same, but without her son.
