ARLINGTON – Matthew Rubio almost made it home.
Rubio, 20, didn’t want his cousin Ryan Tucker riding his bike home in the dark. So he went to pick him up from Tucker’s dishwashing job in Smokey Point.
Rubio often volunteered to pick up Tucker from work. The cousins were close, and they even joined the Job Corps together. That was Rubio’s way to ensure Tucker, 18, finished high school.
The men were on Highway 9, three blocks from home, when Rubio saw a car coming toward them on the wrong side of the road. He tried to pull out of the way and drove onto the shoulder.
He hoped the oncoming car would pass by. It didn’t. The wrong-way driver clipped the front of Rubio’s Toyota RAV4, causing the sport utility vehicle to roll, police said.
The Aug. 29 crash killed Rubio and injured Tucker.
The woman who struck Rubio was allegedly driving drunk, State Patrol trooper Lance Ramsay said. Witnesses told police she’d been driving in the wrong lane for miles, causing cars to swerve out of her way.
The State Patrol is still investigating the accident. No charges had been filed as of Friday.
No matter what the outcome is, it won’t blunt the pain of Rubio’s death, his family said.
“He was just doing a good deed for someone he cared about,” his mother Tiffeny Rubio said. “I still can’t believe he’s not coming home. He did everything he could (to prevent the crash) and it still wasn’t enough.”
Rubio lived in Arlington with his parents and younger sisters Chelsea and Katy. Tucker moved in after his mother and grandmother died, and treated Rubio like an older brother.
Rubio embraced the role. He was so proud that Tucker had graduated from high school that he hung his cousin’s diploma on his own bedroom wall.
Tucker did not want to discuss the wreck.
Rubio often told his parents that if anything happened to them, he’d care for his sisters. He frequently offered to babysit his many cousins.
And when his father hurt his back and was unable to work, Rubio helped build birdhouses to bring in extra money.
“To Matt, family was more important than anything,” his father Tony Rubio said. “That was his biggest joy.”
Last year, he volunteered at Christmas House, which provides free toys to needy children. He was planning to donate toys and bicycles this year, his mother said.
Instead, his family will celebrate his 21st birthday on Nov. 16 by collecting coats and toys in his memory.
For his mother, it seems little time has passed since Matthew Rubio was a boy himself.
She recalled how he used to climb in bed with her while his dad worked nights. Before closing his eyes, he’d always say “Mommy, I love you most,” Tiffeny Rubio said.
“As I try to fall asleep at night, that just echoes in my mind,” she said. “Now I start my day off with tears and end my day with tears.”
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
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