The children were covered by insurance under Earl Smith's employment at West Valley Suzuki, but Earl Smith went on permanent disability soon after the accident, and conflicts between Jacques' car insurance company and medical insurers meant thousands of dollars in bills went unpaid.

For the first time since the crash, Liza Smith is working full time, doing retail sales for Cricket cellular phones. She is committed to making ends meet for her family, although every day seems an uphill battle.

During the last two years, funds for Utah victims of crime helped, and the public made donations, but it was not enough. Collection agencies plague her every day.

She lived at Primary Children's Medical Center for a month, then moved into a hotel. Her two-story West Valley home would no longer be accessible to children in wheelchairs, so the family moved to Taylorsville.

Her pending bankruptcy aside, Liza Smith constantly worries about her children, who until recently were too scared to sleep in their own rooms. She is nowhere near forgiveness for Jacques.

Every conversation with the young mother reveals new details about the 28-month period that can only be described as a nightmare.

For example, a year after the crash, a local business gave her a wheelchair van with lifts and ramps to transport the children. After careful consideration, Liza Smith and the children set out for Victorville, Calif., for a Thanksgiving visit with her mother and grandparents.

Liza Smith's mother, Yvonne Arnold, helped rear her grandchildren. She lived with the Smiths, cared for the children and watched them while her daughter worked.

But the day after Thanksgiving, Arnold and Liza Smith's grandparents were traveling in one car to go Christmas shopping at a California mall. Liza Smith was following behind with her children in the new van. She watched as the car carrying her mother and grandparents was creamed by a Ford truck that sped around traffic and ran a yellow light.

Liza Smith cradled her mother's head at the scene until the ambulance came. The children saw everything. Autumn was screaming and vomiting from the trauma.

Arnold never recovered. With severe brain trauma, she existed in a care facility on a diet of 30 to 40 pills a day.

Shortly thereafter, about a year ago, Arnold died. "She kept telling me she wanted to go be with Buddha," Liza Smith said.

 · · · · ·  "There can be no punishment as great as the punishment of having to deal with my actions for the rest of my life. I accept complete responsibility for my actions ... I pray that prison is not in my future, but more so I pray for the forgiveness from the Smith family and forgiveness from God."