BUFFALO, N.Y. — Members of the Buffalo community gathered Sunday night to say goodbye to 22-year-old Anndel Taylor, who died while waiting for help.
She died in her car after she became trapped in her car while trying to return home from work on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 23.
Taylor sent videos to her sisters while trapped in her car.
“She left her home to go take care of other people, and nobody was there for her,” said her mother Wanda Brown Steele.
Taylor and her family called for help, but it wasn't until a day after Taylor’s body was already found that authorities called back.
“Monday, they called me and asked me if I was in a safe place,” Brown Steele said. “If they listened to the message, they would have known it wasn't me — it was my daughter that was in need.”
The Taylor family is one of dozens of families across Western New York that will be holding candles and comforting one another over the coming days and weeks, as the city remembers the 40 who died in its deadliest blizzard ever.
“Buffalo was not prepared for this, as it's something they should have been prepared for,” Brown Steele said.
But on Sunday night, the Taylor family chose to remember not the way that Anndel went, but the bright light that she was.
“If you're in a bad mood, she will always make you happy. That's what I loved about her, and I just think it was too early for her to go,” said her sister, Nedeah Taylor.