HUNTINGTON BEACH – Mourners filled the wooden pews and lined the aisles of the cavernous chapel at Sts. Simon & Jude Catholic Church on Thursday to witness the completion of the circle of Candace Tift’s 31-year life.
In the same church where the Costa Mesa teacher was baptized, loved ones said their final goodbyes to Tift, a week after the young mother died after being hit by a car while riding her bicycle on West Coast Highway.
Tift had her cocker spaniel Dudley by her side Aug. 23 when a car flew off the road near Riverside Avenue in Newport Beach, knocking her from the bike. She died the next day.
The driver of the car, Janene Johns, 52, of Irvine was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of prescription drugs. She posted $100,000 bond. Johns has not been charged.
More than a thousand people whose lives intersected with Tift’s – some for years, others just fleetingly – descended on the church, struggling to resolve the randomness of it all.
A life too brief. A mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend who had touched so many others in such a short time.
“How do we make sense of a tragic death of a 31-year-old girl?” said the Rev. Stephen C. Scarlett, who led the service. “There is no good explanation for the events of August 23.”
Tift’s current and former students, some in bright green summer dresses and flowing purple skirts, punctuated the head-to-toe black that dominated the chapel’s landscape. Grasping their parents’ hands, the young mourners wiped tears from their cheeks.
Tift’s husband, Wade, spoke of late-night conversations he shared with his wife, dreaming up ways to reach her students. Tift spent the last four years at Eastbluff Elementary School in Newport, challenging gifted and talented students to excel.
“Teaching children was a calling that she had,” he said. “Every child was a scholar. The task was how to bring out the scholar in each of them.
“Her passion, determination and love changed lives.”
Mary Logan, Tift’s mother, told the crowd of her daughter’s spirit and unrelenting quest to be a good mother to her 15-month-old son Owen
“She was the most fulfilled, loved and content women I know,” Logan said, brushing a steady stream of tears from her face.
Words written by one of Tift’s former students reduced gray-haired men to tears, their shoulders shaking as Wade Tift read of a purpose complete.
“Only time will tell when our clock will stop, so live your life as if tomorrow was your last day.”
Joanna Lauer managed a smile through her tears as she spoke of the mischief her former roommate could find. And she talked of watching Tift finding her two great loves – Wade and their son Owen.
“If I were to measure her life by quantity, it does seem short,” Lauer said. “But if I do it in terms of quality and by the amount of love, laughter, joy and personal contentment she experienced in those 31 years, I consider her life full.
“Instead of mourning it is over, be happy that it happened,” Lauer said.
Following the service, the crowd filed solemnly out to the front of the church and surrounded Tift’s casket, lingering as if unable to say a last goodbye.
Weeping, Jake Logan, 14, helped carry his sister’s casket to the waiting hearse.
Wade Tift gently closed the door and patted the window. And the sea of loved ones engulfed him.
Contact the writer: 714-445-6689 or kedds@ocregister.com
