Children, teachers and parents pay tribute to their lost friends

<p>Family members and friends said a touching and sometimes-tearful farewell to the Maloney family at a memorial Friday at the Sonoma Community Center.</p><p>Molly Maloney, the lone surviving member of John and Susan Maloney's family, sobbed as she recalled some of the “perfect moments” in their lives: playing in the surf at Santa Cruz and attending a Justin Timberlake concert, even though Susan was not a fan of his music.</p><p>“John and Sue lived for perfect moments, as he called them,” said Molly, 19, a college student.</p><p>Molly Maloney was not in the family car when it was struck broadside by a speeding vehicle last Saturday night, killing John Maloney, 45, his wife, Susan, 42, and their children, Aiden, 8, and Grace, 5.</p><p>“You have four angels of love marching with you and walking with you,” Peadar Dalton, a family friend and minister, told Molly Maloney in leading off the service before a standing-room-only crowd.</p><p>“I have this hole in my heart,” Dalton said. “I think that speaks for all of us this evening.”</p><p>The four Maloneys were on their way home from a trip to Maui when their minivan was hit by a car traveling 70 to 90mph at the intersection of Lakeville Highway and Highway 37. The driver, Steven Culbertson, 19, of Lakeport, died the day after the crash.</p><p>Debbie Maloney, John's sister-in-law, recalled the family's many travels to places such as San Diego, Ireland, Key West and the Grand Canyon.</p><p>John Maloney, a successful businessman and author of a children's book, was remembered by several people as a man who “worked hard and played hard” and had a great way with people.</p><p>“Your thoughtfulness and generosity always amazed me,” Debbie Maloney said of her husband's brother.</p><p>Haley Murray, the couple's niece, said Susan Maloney was “a funny person” and a caring woman.</p><p>“What I loved about her most was that each time I saw her she took time out to ask about my life,” Murray said. “I'll never forget how much she meant to me.”</p><p>Aiden Maloney was “an energetic kid” who loved soccer and his Nintendo, Murray said.</p><p>Gracie Maloney was a quiet, observant girl who enjoyed singing, ballet and “pretty dresses,” she said.</p><p>“I don't understand why such great people have to leave this world,” Murray said with a sob.</p><p>John Murray said his sister, Susan, had a “hilarious, irreverent, wicked wit.”</p><p>“There is nothing in life that feels better than laughter with those you love the most,” he said.</p><p>“I simply can't make sense of life without them,” said Murray, who had accompanied the Sonoma family on their trip to Maui.</p><p>Bob Smith of Sonoma, a close friend who married the couple, recalled watching their relationship grow, even after 10 years of marriage.</p><p>“Their love had moved to another level,” Smith said. “It had moved to the sublime.”</p><p>The California Highway Patrol is investigating whether the other driver, Culbertson, who raced cars as a hobby and had been arrested for drunken driving in a 2007 Lake County crash, had been drinking before reportedly running a red light and crashing into the family's minivan.</p><p>Smith said he had dismissed any feeling about Culbertson's culpability. “I have no anger because there is no room for it,” he said. “My very being is filled with sadness.”</p><p>Following the memorial, two bagpipers led mourners on a walk to Sonoma Plaza.</p><p>Earlier in the day, about 500 students, staff and parents paid tribute to the family by releasing balloons and four white doves at Sonoma's Prestwood School, where Grace Maloney was a kindergartner and her older brother attended second grade.</p><p>Kindergarten teacher Kristi Draluck, who was Grace's teacher and had Aiden in class two years earlier, struggled to hold back her tears as she stepped forward to grasp one of the doves.</p><p>She held the bird close and appeared to try to calm it with a whisper before kissing it once, and sending it skyward with three others — one for each of the family members lost.</p><p>Retired Principal Linda Tiefenthal said the deaths had been “incredibly hard for this staff.”</p><p>As the kids and adults lined the the blacktop Friday, Tiefenthal acknowledged the solemnity of the occasion, saying, “We've lost a family that's very dear to us and our community.”</p><p>She encouraged the students “to think the thoughts that are important to you” as they observed a full minute of silence.</p><p>A chime sounded, and they then chattered and laughed as the balloons flew skyward en masse and they saw the curly white ribbons twist and turn like kite tails as the bobbing balloons rose toward the blue.</p><p>The doves were then released one at a time by those who had taught the Maloney children.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com and Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.</p>