Family, friends remember sixth Key Bridge worker as a quiet ‘dreamer’

Cassidy Jensen, Baltimore Sun
Updated ·4 min read

When the Key Bridge collapsed, those who loved José Mynor López were not alone in their sense of loss.

But as family, friends and coworkers said goodbye Friday to the last of six Brawner Builders workers who died March 26, their grief for a quiet, dedicated father loomed larger than any pain the city may have shared.

Eight weeks after the bridge collapse, López’s loved ones gathered in a Dundalk church for an emotional service and overnight wake to remember the quiet, hardworking 37-year-old who “preferred to work double shifts,” according to a program.

Pastor Fredy López, no relation of López, told mourners that they were welcome to stay at the First Church of the Nazarene Solo Cristo Salva until the white casket was set to depart at 6 a.m. Saturday

López was a “soñador,” or “dreamer” in English, who made sure his mother Nora Orellana López could get a visa to come to the United States after 18 years spent apart, the program said. He longed to spend time with family and friends in Guatemala, his country of origin and the place where his family plans to bury him.

Parts of López’s funeral service have become sadly familiar to those affected by the tragedy. The fallen workers who once shared overnight shifts and lunch breaks have been remembered at funeral services at some of the same venues as a recurring set of state officials and coworkers appear to offer their condolences.

The Dundalk church hosted services for 35-year-old Alejandro Hernández Fuentes and 24-year-old Carlos Daniel Hernández, members of the same Mexican family who both died on the bridge.

Brawner Builders owner Jack Murphy addressed López’s family and friends at the last of “several funerals” he has attended in recent weeks.

Murphy described López as a hardworking family man, on-call 24 hours a day, who often greeted him with a big wave and a smile. López was crazy about his youngest daughter, Deyni, who will turn six in June, Murphy said.

“José was a quiet guy with a big heart. José was such a hard worker, trying to do everything for his family and now he’s gone,” he said. “He was way too young to die.”

Attendees also heard the voice of gospel singer Luis Caseres, a former Brawner worker who sang at an earlier service for worker Maynor Suazo Sandoval.

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“I’m so happy that all the bodies have been found,” Caseres said in Spanish on Friday. When he left Brawner to study music, Caseres said he hoped his former coworkers might hear his songs one day. “I never thought I would dedicate a song to them on an occasion like this,” he said.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, a Democrat, spoke during the prayer service and presented López’s family with a citation in his honor.

The only member of López’s family to address those gathered Friday evening was his preteen stepson, Eduar López. López raised his wife’s children Eduar, Arlison and Yeslin as his own.

Eduar López stood beside pastor and Brawner employee Evert Iglesias, wearing a white T-shirt bearing an image of his stepfather’s face and speaking in Spanish.

“He always told me he would buy me a ball and he would teach me how to play soccer,” Eduar said. López took him to lakes, rivers and parks. “He always took care of us,” he said, before beginning to cry and burying his face in Iglesias’ chest.

Olvin Espinoza, another Brawner coworker, read a letter to López’s family, written as if the fallen worker was gazing down from heaven and reassuring those left behind. When Espinoza was finished reading, he handed the folded yellow paper to López’s wife Isabel Franco.

After the prayers and music, Bernardo Vargas approached the casket, carrying a Guatemalan flag that had previously accompanied a cross bearing López’s name at a memorial near the fallen bridge. Vargas and a few other men carefully laid the flag across the casket beneath a bouquet of red and white flowers.

Meanwhile, family and friends of López descended to the church basement for plates of tamales, rice and potato salad and cups of soda and coffee.

By 10 p.m., church staff had stationed themselves at the entrance to the small parking lot to direct cars coming in and out as groups of mourners began to congregate outside. Kids wailed or ran underfoot as their parents stood chatting in the dark, waiting for morning to come.