Mary Wong's final steps were in a crosswalk just a few yards from her Springfield home, where she was struck by a vehicle just a few days after Christmas.
Wong died over a month after that crash, at the end of January. Her family is devastated: They had to lay her to rest without knowing who is responsible for the tragedy, because that driver fled the scene.
Fairfax County Police are still looking for that person, and are now asking for help from the public in identifying the car involved in the crash -- with nothing but a few broken pieces of a headlight.
"Crash detectives are asking for the community's help from the Dec. 27 fatal pedestrian crash on Huntsman Blvd," their social media post reads. "The broken pieces of a headlight (below) were collected from the scene. Believed to be driver's side headlight."
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The hit-and-run crash left Mary Wong with brain damage. She was put on life support, and on Monday, Jan. 29, she took her final breaths.
"You listen to her breath, you hear her cough, you wonder what day she's going to pass," said David Wong, Mary's son. "It's torturous. To do this for one whole month? I wouldn't want anyone to ever go through that."
David and his sister, Jeanie, celebrated Christmas in their house just two days before Mary was hit. It had already been a hard few years for them: Two years ago, David's father died suddenly of a heart attack.
On top of the unimaginable pain, there's a feeling of helplessness.
"It's so hard to live with myself, knowing my one last living parent is gone, and that there's nothing to show for it," David said. "There's no one to hold accountable for it."
Fairfax County Police had no strong leads on Jan. 30, one day after Mary died and over a month after she was struck.
And while there's some relief, albeit painful, that Mary is no longer suffering, the family is still grappling with her absence.
"Just that reminder that we still had someone in this world that loved us unconditionally," Jeanie told News4.
Mary loved to cook, and to sing. She was proud of her job at Radio Free Asia. Her smile was genuine, and her love was unwavering.
"Her legacy is that she was always faithful, to both her family, her work, her faith, her friends," David said.
She was laid to rest the first weekend of February.
