Family prepares ‘funeral instead of a wedding’

A midnight phone call is almost never good news, and that proved true for Roslyn Bersamin of Pearl City, who learned Saturday that her younger sister had died in a horrific limousine fire en route to her bachelorette party in the San Francisco Bay area.

"She’s sad and really devastated by the tragic accident," said Bersamin’s sister-in-law, Christina Kitts, who lives in Aiea.

Bersamin’s sister, Neriza Fojas, 31, was among five women killed Saturday night in the limousine fire on their way to her bachelorette party. Four women survived and are being treated at area hospitals. The driver also survived.

Kitts said Fojas, a registered nurse, was due to have a second wedding ceremony in her native Philippines next month.

Fojas and her husband, Carlo, first married in Las Vegas in January 2011. Both wanted to have a large church wedding in the Philippines, surrounded by family members and childhood friends. Her parents had moved back to the Philippines from the U.S. in January to help prepare for the ceremony. About 300 people had been invited.

"Everybody’s heartbroken," said Kitts, adding that family members remain in shock. "Everybody is preparing for a funeral instead of a wedding."

Originally from Cami­ling in Tarlac province, Fojas, the youngest of three, moved to Pearl City in 2004. She lived with Bersamin, also a nurse, while she studied for her nursing exam.

A year later she moved to Oakland, Calif., where she worked at a rehabilitation facility for 31⁄2 years. Fojas then moved to Fresno, and had been working at the Community Regional Medical Center.

She had planned to pursue her master’s degree after her wedding.

Kitts described Fojas as a good listener, a caring and thoughtful woman who always remembered to send greetings on their birthdays.

"She’s hardworking, a good sister and a good daughter," said Kitts.

Fojas’ family members have received an outpouring of support from across the country as well as the United Kingdom, where there is a large population of nurses from the Philippines.

Kitts expressed sympathy for the family members of Fojas’ four friends also killed in the blaze, one of them her best friend and maid of honor, Michelle Estrera, a nurse working at the same hospital. The family members are in the Philippines awaiting information from investigators on the accident, she said.

Estrera has a 3-year-old daughter who is asking for her mother.

"How do you deal with that?" Kitts asked.

Funeral arrangements for Fojas in Fresno and in Hawaii are pending.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.