About 150 people packed the Fairmount Cemetery Chapel this morning to pay respects to 3-year-old Marten Kudlis, who died tragically last week while at an ice-cream store in Aurora.
“Oh, my God, Marten, this is the last thing I ever wanted to do with you,” shouted his father, Marat, as the tiny wooden casket was lowered into the ground. “I love you so much.”
Rabbi David Zucker of Shalom Park told the gathering: “This is a parent’s worst nightmare, but we will wake up and realize this is not a dream,” he said.
Marten had gone with a 10-year-old friend and his mother to play at Lowry Park on Thursday evening. Then the group stopped at the Baskin-Robbins store at South Havana Street and East Mississippi Avenue for a treat.
A high-speed collision in the intersection sent a vehicle crashing into a transformer. A jagged piece of metal flew through the ice-cream shop, killing Marten.
Two women in one of the vehicles also died in the accident. The driver, Francis Hernandez, is believed to be an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal record involving mostly traffic offenses. He has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide.
After the burial, Marat Kudlis told the gathering, “I have no words. I am depressed out of my mind. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to go through something like this again. Ever.”
