OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The night before Thanksgiving is considered the biggest bar night of the year. People are going to head out to catch up with family and friends.
The choice at the end of the night of how you decide to get home could have devastating consequences.
Fayth Wilds lost her mom and soon-to-be stepdad to a drunk driver well over five years ago. If you ask Fayth, that day feels like yesterday.
"There's not a single day that you don't think about them," Wilds said.
Fayth has an entire album dedicated to the two on her phone.
"A whole bunch of pictures when we were trying on her wedding dresses," Wilds shared.
The pictures of Missy trying on wedding dresses as the two went out shopping is a moment the daughter won't ever forget.
"I wish every day I would have cherished my time more. It's definitely hard, because there's all the little arguments I had, and it's like, 'Why did I have that argument?'" Wilds said.
Many of the photos Wilds showed included Justin Ducham, who often smiled with his soon-to-be wife.
"Justin was always goofy. He was always making everybody laugh," Wilds said.
Missy and Justin were both killed by a drunk driver back in 2019.
The driver, Cody Loomis, is currently serving prison time. FOX 17 previously reported he had prior drunk driving convictions on his record at the time of the crash.
"I know you didn't intentionally mean to hurt me as a person, but, like, you knew the decisions you were making were gonna hurt somebody, and you continue to do it. Now I have to pay for the rest of my life ... for something you decided to do," Wilds said. "I do have, obviously, my dad, my boyfriend, my grandma. They're kind of my rocks through everything."
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), every day, 37 people in the U.S. die in drunk driving crashes.
"Every day you know you're stuck living with it. I'm stuck living with it for the rest of my life. I won't have a mom there for my wedding. I won't have a mom there when I have my first child," Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Victim Services Specialist Betsy Harris said.
Harris has been with the organization for years.
"We are a group who work towards creating a future of no more victims. We provide information and services for victims of impaired driving crashes," Harris said.
As a victim services specialist, she sees firsthand the impact a drunk driver can have on victims and their loved ones.
"Today, I have a call. I had a call from a man who was in a wheelchair, paralyzed due to an injury when he was hit by a drunk driver. Also, today, I worked with a mom who lost a child, and the sentencing is coming up, and that was also due to an impaired driver," Harris said.
The night before Thanksgiving is the biggest bar night of the year.
According to the NHTSA, in 2022, 35% of deadly car crashes on Thanksgiving Eve involved drunk drivers.
"Our work at MADD says that our life can change in a second, and we don't want to change our lives or anybody else's, so it's just so much easier to make a plan ahead of time," Hariss added.
The MADD specialist says one death is too many.
"I always hope that one day we get to silence the phone," Harris said.
"I wouldn't wish this pain on anybody ever. It's just preventable. It's 100% preventable. So prevent it. Definitely prevent it," Wilds added.
Wilds says it took time, but she has forgiven Loomis. His earliest release date is 2031.
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