'Red Hat Society' ladies remember Bastrop's Debbie Orr
They had been through something they would never forget...but they were thankful to be alive.
"Yes in fact I was the second person off and very fortunate so we have a lot to be happy about," said survivor Justine Nigren.
Late Wednesday night a small group of survivors from Tuesday's horrific bus crash arrived back in Bastrop to a crowd that couldn't be happier to see them. Nigren says she was sitting right behind the bus driver when the charter bus carrying 50 souls got stalled on a railroad track and sideswiped by a train going 19 miles an hour.
"It was just a shocking thing and it was very tragic, very tragic," she said.
Cliff Wright's wife is still in the hospital with several broken ribs. He was heading out to see her on Thursday but wanted to show support for his friends when they got back home safely.
"I just can't give you a reaction...first of all when they said a train...that right there is just 'how did that happen?'" Wright said.
As more and more survivors are released from the hospital...as the Bastrop Police Chief pointed out earlier in the week some of them really don't want to get on a bus right now. Who could blame them? Bastrop'sToyota dealership "Lost Pines" is helping out with that in a big way.
"Turns out they have a couple of people over there that are uncomfortable riding a bus back. They needed somebody to go pick them up so that's what we're doing
Thursday morning Lost Pines co-owner Laurie Liriano showed Bastrop Police Chief Steve Adcock the type of minivan they're sending in case more want to hitch a ride back to Bastrop as they get released from the hospital.
"We've been in contact with a couple of people and we have someone traveling down there today to Bay St. Louis to bring home a couple of victims tomorrow," Liriano said.
Meanwhile at the Bastrop Senior Center 62-year-old Debbie Orr is being sorely missed.
Pearl Russo, Maryann Seidel and Amy Dittrich, friends of Orr's from the Red Hat Society describe her as bubbly like a glass of champagne and the "hostess with the mostess."
"When she walked in this place or anywhere else you knew Debbie Orr was there," Seidel said.
The ladies say Orr held the title of "queen" in a Red Hat chapter called The Golden Girls like the TV show. Dittrich says the hat on her head during our interview...Debbie made it.
"When she walked in with it I said 'I love that hat it's beautiful' she says 'oh you do? Well here it's yours' and she put it on my head," Dittrich said.
Orr's friends say her husband Tim is still fighting for his life in the hospital. Just last week she was showing off her newborn great grandson.
"That's how I think we're all going to remember her from last Thursday. She was in here bouncing around that baby and so proud," Seidel said. "Debbie is going to be so, so missed. Not just for things she did but the person she was because she had a big heart."