Talavera said she spent hours waiting for Morales to come home, figuring he was simply working overtime. Attempts to call him went straight to voicemail.
Then, a friend of Morales’s called and broke the news — Alberto and his fraternal twin brother Ruddy, both 33, had been killed after their 2012 Honda Accord slammed into the median on Interstate 1-95 in Mattapoisett. The Plymouth district attorney’s office said Sunday the cause of the crash remained under investigation. Talavera’s mother, Judy, said the twins hit a patch of icy road and skidded into the median.
The twins, who had both recently moved to New Bedford from Pawtucket, R.I., were inseparable, Judy Talavera said.
“They were always together,” she said. “They live together. They work together. They were twins that were stuck to each other.”
Melissa Talavera, 38, said Ruddy and Alberto were “very close.”
“All of us was always together,” she said. “It was always me, him, my kids, and his brother.”
Ruddy was also a loving father, Melissa Talavera said.
“He was also a very good dad to his son,” she said. “These guys were such good guys they just were good to everybody. That hurts even more. I just remember how great of a person [they were].”
Talavera said she had been dating Morales for six years, after they met at a Rhode Island gas station. The couple had a 2-year-old daughter.
Talavera remembered him as a loving father who spoiled his little girl.
“He was the best dad,” she said in a telephone interview Sunday. “He loved his daughter. His daughter was everything to him.”
Her mother echoed that description of his love for their daughter. “That was his princess,” she said.
Alberto was a doting father not just to their daughter, but to Talavera’s four other children — ranging in age from 20 to 9.
“He was an awesome stepfather. He took care of my daughter’s other kids, helped them out a lot,” said Judy Talavera. “He did everything with these kids. He was like a big kid himself.”
Her grandchildren were also fond of Ruddy, she said.
“My grandkids all loved him, and he was a good guy.”
The family was planning a vigil to remember the brothers late Sunday afternoon in Central Falls, R.I., at Jenks Park, a place the twins visited often, according to Judy Talavera.
A GoFundMe organized by Melissa Talavera has raised more than $1,000 to assist the Morales family with funeral costs.
Melissa Talavera said she, Alberto, and her daughter celebrated Christmas early this year because they intended to return home late on Christmas Eve, having spent the holiday with both of their families. Talavera said that early celebration will be her lasting memory of Alberto.
“He turned to me and he told me ‘being here with you and the kids was the best Christmas of my life.’ And that right there, that’s what hurts the most,” she said. “That’s the last thing I remember him telling me and he must’ve told me that like three, four times.
“That’s all I keep in the back of my head right now.”
Talavera said she is unsure how she and her children will move on without Alberto’s presence in their lives.
“I don’t even know where to begin. I’m very lost,” she said. “The way all this happened it’s just a bit much. I’m so shaken up about the whole situation because I never expected for any of this to happen.
“My Christmas Eve is never going to be the same again.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @charliemckenna9.
