By snoadmin
When she walked into a room, the whole place just lit up, said Danny Thompson about Priscilla Cruces, his high school sweetheart and best friend.
Friends said she was an outspoken, articulate and loving friend who will be missed for her vivacious approach to life.
Cruces, a freshman business finance major, died early Saturday morning in a car accident with Angela Reyes, a freshman journalism major, on the 605 Freeway near Telegraph Road. They were both 18 years old.
Funeral services for Cruces will be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday at St. John Baptist de la Salle Catholic Church in Granada Hills.
Cruces was the varsity captain of her cheerleading squad at Bishop Alemany High School in the San Fernando Valley’s Mission Hills neighborhood where she attended. According to Thompson, she was also asked by the USA Cheer Team this year to be one of its flyers.
“She was so small and petite – it was easy for her to do the flips,” Thompson said.
Cruces missed cheering, but she decided not to continue it at Cal State Long Beach. She wanted to focus more on her classes.
According to one of her best friends from high school, Courtney Brozdowski, CSULB was Cruces’ first choice.
“She got into a lot of different places, including San Diego, but she said hands-down she was going to Long Beach,” Brozdowski said.
Jamie Sanchez, one of Cruces’ suitemates from the Parkside Common dorms on campus, said she was smart and “very studious.”
According to Thompson, Cruces planned on having her own financing company after graduating from CSULB.
Kacey Ukanis, one of her best friends of 10 years, said she was talented and was definitely going to make an impact on the world.
“She was always the first person to point out if something was wrong and she would try to fix it,” Ukanis said.
“She always told the truth,” Brozdowski said. “She just didn’t beat around the bush.”
“She wasn’t scared…she was a fighter,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she got that from her father, who was the first one in their family to emigrate to the United States from Peru.
“Her family has strong ties to their Peruvian heritage,” Thompson said. “Whenever I’d come over, I would always have to give them all kisses on the cheek – the boys and the girls.”
Her sense of style and her passion for the art of fashion came from her mother.
“She probably had enough clothes to clothe a country,” Brozdowski said. She had a fetish for boots and had been anxiously awaiting a “girly” pair on back-order that were finally coming this month.
“She was the best-dressed of any girl I’ve ever known,” Thompson said. “I don’t even think I ever saw her in the same outfit twice.”
Thompson said she was a family favorite and””the kind of girl that was hard to say no to.” She was a source of pride for her family.
“She loved her family: her mom and her dad and her brother,” Thompson said. “They were just the best family ever.”
Cruces was especially close with her younger brother, Xavier, a junior at her alma mater, Bishop Alemany.
“She believed in him so much,” Thompson said. “She told him he could achieve anything if he just put his mind to it.”
“Priscilla always wanted her brother to do well,” Sanchez said.
Friends said Cruces was passionate about her loved ones and would go to any length for her brother.
“I was always so happy just to be around her,” Brozdowski said. Cruces’ friends said her sense of humor is one of the things they will miss the most.
Ukanis said she was so funny and that she always tried to make a funny face.
“She could pull off these faces that no one else could,” Thompson said. “I feel so blessed to have loved her and had her love me. She was my best friend.”
