Baby Trinity Estrada brought home for final rest

Ten-year-old D.J. falls asleep at night clutching his baby sister's blanket. Across the hall, on a dresser top in the master bedroom, three pacifiers are lined up in a row; behind them, a religious candle burns in Trinity's memory. Her photograph hangs on the wall.

The 4-month-old daughter of David and Tanya Estrada had cut her first tooth and was babbling, laughing and trying her best to roll over when she suddenly died Jan. 28.

What happened in the days that followed has the grateful Winter Garden family seeking to appropriately thank a local funeral director who went out of his way to make sure the family's needs were taken care of and their baby was properly laid to rest.

“It was Rob Bittle of Collison Carey (Hand Funeral Home) who extended his heart and hand to help get us through this with the loss of my granddaughter,” Debbie Murphy said. “He was so wonderful to my daughter, Tanya.”

Bittle said his heart went out to the family when he received the call for assistance.

“We just helped get her baby girl from Atlanta back here and had a service for her,” he said. “Anytime someone's in that situation you just can't help but feel for them. It's the worst situation to be in. In funeral service, we see about everything, but this is the worst, seeing a little kid like that.”

With Bittle's help, Trinity was flown back to Orlando. Pastor J.V. Sullivan and his wife, Carletta, arranged a special service at their church, Southside Christian Fellowship, on Ninth Street in Winter Garden.

TRAGEDY STRIKES

The family of five — David and Tanya Estrada and their two sons and daughter — had traveled to Augusta, Georgia, to visit Tanya's uncle, who was ill. They were staying in a hotel, and Trinity was sleeping with her parents because their car had been too full of luggage to include the playpen.

Tanya said David checked on Trinity at 11:30 p.m. and she was fine; one-and-one-half hours later, she wasn't breathing. After hollering to Tanya, he ran to the front desk to call 911 and hurried back to the room to start CPR on his daughter.

Tanya remembers hearing her 9- and 10-year-old sons crying and saying, “Daddy, we don't want our sister to die.”

The emergency crew arrived and continued CPR in the ambulance, David right next to his daughter, but she couldn't be revived.

“I didn't get to hold her,” Tanya said. “After she passed, they wouldn't let us hold her. We could only hug her. The last time I got to hold her I was putting her to bed.”

IT'S A GIRL

Trinity's name had been picked out decades ago, when her mother was a little girl and had a baby doll named Trinity.

David's side of the family has mostly nephews, so he was thrilled to hear he was having a girl last year.

“He grew up Catholic and always prayed with the boys,” Tanya said. “He prayed and finished with ‘the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ — the trinity. So it fit in with her name the way that he prayed.”

When Trinity was born, D.J. was at the hospital, too, waiting in the restroom until the birth.

“He was messaging with his aunt everything he could hear from the bathroom,” Tanya said. “He said, ‘I can hear her now; she’s here, she’s here. She already sounds so perfect. I just want to go out there and see her.’”

D.J. and his younger brother, Jordan, 9, both loved their sister, but D.J. never left her side, their mother said. The family has been comforted by the many photos and videos D.J. took in her four months of life.

BRINGING TRINITY HOME

Bittle and Pastor Sullivan knew the family because they previously had handled Tanya’s grandmother’s funeral arrangements. The funeral director was able to have Trinity home on a Friday, and the family held her service the next Tuesday.

“Rob suggested things and gave me recommendations on everything from flowers to everything,” Tanya said. “That's what I loved about him. … He made us feel more peaceful.”

Trinity Murphy Estrada is buried in Winter Garden Cemetery, near Tanya’s great-great-grandmother. To ensure their baby won’t rest alone, Tanya and David are purchasing gravesites on either side of her.

“We don’t want her out there by herself,” Tanya said.

For now, Trinity’s gravesite has a small wooden fence on either side with her name written on one of the pickets. A temporary paper marker with her name on it distinguishes it from the hundreds of other graves in the cemetery.

Tanya’s mother set up a GoFundMe account to help the couple raise money for a permanent headstone. Tanya would like a heart-shaped marker with Trinity’s photo on the front and a short message, maybe “Our little angel” or “Rest in peace, little angel.” She is working on a short poem she’d like engraved on the back, next to an angel.

“It was amazing how everyone came together,” Tanya said. “I didn't expect all that. My husband and I thought we were going to be going through this alone.”