The 18-year-old son of Desma Oakes mourns the loss of his mother, one of seven victims killed when a pickup truck hit a group of motorcycles in New Hampshire.
As more and more information surfaces about the suspect in Friday's deadly crash in Randolph, New Hampshire, new details about the victims are coming to light.
Desma Oakes was a mom from Concord, New Hampshire, who dedicated her life to helping others after losing her youngest son and her husband to cancer.
NBC10 Boston sat down with Oakes' oldest son, who is no stranger to tragedy.
"There's nothing bigger in my mind right now than her smile," said 18-year-old Colby Oickle at his home in Windsor, Vermont.
The smile to which he's referring is the one his mom's face in a photo at his high school graduation just a few weeks ago.
"It's the last picture I have with her," he said.
Last week, Oickle got the news that his 42-year-old mother was one of seven people killed in Friday's horrific motorcycle crash. She was on the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle.
"I think she died with a smile because she was with someone she loved," Oickle said. "It was very hard, I didn't know what to do."
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Thursday, Oickle showed a video of his favorite family photos.
Most of them were from many years ago -- the last time they were all together. In 2009, his 4-year-old brother, Ryan, died of cancer. Three years later, his dad lost a long battle with small cell carcinoma.
Oickle says it was then that his mother showed her true strength.
"She held up like a brick wall," he said. "Nothing could stop her."
Oakes turned her grief into something good and spent years volunteering to help other families dealing with childhood cancer.
"She was an amazing person and an amazing sister," said Oakes' sister, Moriah Tidwell.
At his mom's request, Oickle moved to in with his Aunt Moriah last fall to make sure he graduated high school.
"He accomplished his mother's dream," Tidwell said.
A young man, who has loved and lost two times before, now finds comfort in knowing he made his mom proud.
"To me, it's almost like closure," Oickle said. "I did what I needed to do for her."
Oickle says his mom was funny and kind. She loved to dance. So it's only fitting that he's ordered a dance floor for a celebration of his mom's life at the Hanover Inn near Dartmouth on Saturday.
