"I never thought this is where I'd be": Lou's story

HURON — From the moment Lucy Hopkins arrived, she brought the light with her. "She was perfect," her mom, Robin Brickman, said then laughed. "I guess I could be biased because that was my kid. But she's been a little ray of light since she was young, and stayed that way as she was coming into being an adult. She was just fun." She called her Lou, this mercurial child she describes who was still part girl, part woman. Brickman sometimes speaks of her in the present, sometimes in the past, a clue to how she holds Lou in her mind: Her daughter, her firstborn child, was just 18 when she died March 6. Hopkins was in a car with her friend Paige Williams and Hopkins' boyfriend, Charles Martin, early that morning when the vehicle hit a utility pole and then went into the water at Beaver Park Marina in Lorain. The crash was reported when an injured Martin went to a nearby house and said he'd gotten out through a back window, police said. It would be hours before Brickman knew. "I had a weird feeling that whole day. I was at work and I had just finished up with a customer and looked at my phone and saw that my son had called and texted me multiple times. I didn't even notice the sheriff had called me yet. "The police wouldn't tell me what's going on, they just kept saying it's a serious situation and they needed to talk to me. I kept asking is my son in trouble? Am I going to be arrested? What's going on? Finally I said is this about my daughter? And they said yes and I said 'Is she dead?' They didn't say it over the phone but I got it out of my son. I had to know because I had to know what I was walking into before I went over there." Brickman has two younger children — Jax, 17, and Thane, 9 — and had taken Thane to work with her that day. The police were asking her to meet them at the police department to give her the news, and she was thinking of what she would face with Thane in tow. A friend from work drove her. "I had driven by the crash that morning. I had seen the police cars. I saw them pulling it out of the marina. I said 'Oh my gosh, that's horrible.' "But it wasn't Lou's car. I thought, 'oh, it's not her.' And I didn't think about it." Constant presence Brickman feels her daughter with her, every day, every minute. She had some of her ashes made into necklaces for some of her "girlies," her closest friends, for her father and other family members. For herself, they were fired into a butterfly necklace with a tag that reads: I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, My Lou Lou you'll be. It's based on one of Lou's favorite childhood bedtime books, "Love You Forever." Lou was driven and smart, and was willing to work hard to get what she wanted, her mom said. "When she was itty-bitty, even before she could get into preschool, she was like 'How do I get into school sooner? How do I do more? How could I get there?' My mom started homeschooling her early. She loved to do it." She started working at Martino's International Restaurant in Vermilion at 14, busing tables or serving, "getting her hands dirty at whatever and all her customers loved her." She graduated from the medical assisting program at EHOVE Career Center in 2025 and was working as a state tested nurse aide at Kingston of Vermilion and was enrolled at Lorain County Community College when she died. Lou was taking environmental science but was considering eventually studying law, politics or medical studies, her mom said. A "country girl," she loved spending time at the lake with her friends, and "music, cars and trucks." She had just gotten an apartment with a friend and secured her own car loan the month before. "She was so proud of herself," she said. "She had been working a lot. She loved it. I'd have to tell her to slow down, you have time." Still seeking closure Brickman wants to lay her daughter to rest. Not the funeral; that part of the heartbreak is done. But it's been hard, not having closure that she hopes will come with a final report on the crash. Lorain police have not issued a final statement on the investigation, including who was driving, though Brickman said they have told her they do not believe it was Lou, based in part on Martin's statements. Police did not respond to requests for comments. "If they know my daughter wasn't driving, give my family the closure they deserve," she said. "It was so hard at the (funeral) service. I say sometimes it's easier for me as an adult, because I've dealt with loss before, though nothing like this, and understand how life works," she said. "But watching these younger kids deal with this stuff and seeing them deal with this at these young ages, it will affect them all their lives. Seeing them and their faces. … This wasn't how it was supposed to be. This isn't normal. This is off." Brickman was in the middle of opening her own photography studio when Lou died. Plans got derailed, but she's hoping to open the doors next month. She's also restarted her long-held plan to start a nonprofit, called Operation Live Like Lucy. Its first mission is Project Thirst, which she plans to launch this summer, giving out cinch sacks with bottles of water, toiletries, socks and snacks to the unhoused. It's inspired by the times she did this with her kids when they were younger, handing out water and snacks to the less fortunate in parks. Lucy loved doing it, meeting and talking to people. "She was saying we need to do this again, and help people this summer," Brickman said. Summer will be hard. Lou and her mother shared a birthday — Aug. 23 — and for the last 18 years, that was Lou's day. "She was my person. We would do everything together. My life was so wrapped up in whatever she needed. My career and my future was wrapped up in everything she needed. From the moment I wake up and to the moment I go to bed, I think of her. "This is the longest I've ever been without her," she said. "I never thought this is where I'd be." For more information, visit the Operation Live Like Lucy Facebook page. Contact Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.