ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Soulful music, elegant lighting and smiling photos of two mothers and their three young children enveloped mourners Saturday at Kingdom Church as people gathered to remember the five family members.
Antoinette Oliver, 30; Liza Jackson, 25; Chloe Oliver, 5; Olivia Jackson, 4; and King Oliver, 5 months old were killed in a crash on March 11 at Clarcona Ocoee Road.
Two white caskets were in front of the stage with flowers and photos of the young mothers and their children. Mourners approached the caskets to say a few words, bow their heads and offer a prayer. Photos of the smiling women and children offered a glimpse of the lives taken from their family and community too soon.
Doneshia Green, cousins with Oliver and Jackson, struggled to put into words the devastation that losing five family members can cause.
“It’s one thing to lose one family member but five, it’s unimaginable, so we’re just sticking together because we need each other’s strength,” she said.
Green described the sisters as “very hard-working, very loving moms” and just “amazing people to be around.”
Chloe Oliver was “so before her time,” Green said with a smile, recalling her young cousin’s love to dance and sing.
“Such an entertainer,’ Green said of the 5-year-old.
Three-year-old Olivia Jackson was best friends with Green’s daughter, adding “she was funny but loving and feisty.”
King Oliver was just 5-months-old but Green said already he “brought joy to our lives.”
Antoinette Oliver and Liza Jackson are survived by their parents, Anthony Oliver and Shawn Jones Oliver.
Shawn Jones Oliver, 51, was driving the family’s Hyundai when it was involved in a two-vehicle crash. Both vehicles overturned. Oliver is still recovering from her injuries from the crash.
“Any parent would rather their kids bury them than them burying their kids and now I’ve got to bury five,” Anthony Oliver, a pastor at Taft Missionary Baptist Church, told News 6 after the crash. “Love on them while they’re here because when they’re gone that’s it.”