Sunshine Royston chose Sept. 20, the day of her late father's birthday, as the day of her wedding.
She was a year old when Chet Royston died in a motorcycle accident in Baltimore.
Now the relatives who had helped arrange her wedding are preparing for her funeral.
Royston and six of her friends had arranged to use a stretch limousine for her bachelorette party, which included time at the Power Plant in the Inner Harbor, said her maternal grandfather, Fred Thiess.
About 4:30 a.m. yesterday, a tractor-trailer collided with the limousine in the 4000 block of E. Monument St., killing Royston.
"Now she is going to be buried around the day of her father's birthday," said her stepfather, Jeff Bull, who struggled with grief as he recalled the 28-year-old that he and his wife, Victoria, had raised.
Police said the limo was travelling east in the right lane on Monument Street at Haven Street. The driver of a 2004 Freightliner tractor-trailer was heading west on Monument Street and as the truck turned left to head south on Haven, it "turned into the left side of the limo," said Agent Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman.
The limousine was knocked on its right side, and came to rest at the southeast corner of Haven and East Monument, police said.
Royston suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Moses said. Thiess said the other girls were treated at area hospitals. Police did not report any other major injuries.
"Preliminarily, it looks like the tractor-trailer was at fault for not yielding the right of way," said Moses, who said the accident remains under investigation. Police didn't release the driver's name.
Royston had lived for about two years in Dallastown, Pa., with Joe Hillengas, the man she planned to marry Saturday. They had met while growing up in Dundalk and lived in Dallastown to be close to Hillengas' mother. Hillengas commuted to his job at a sheet-metal company in Baltimore, friends said.
One of Royston's friends had arranged for the limousine for the bachelorette party, said Royston's stepfather.
"They thought they did the right thing by not going out drinking and driving and guess what? You do the right thing and it still doesn't pay off," Bull said.
Through tears yesterday, Bull recalled the "too-short life" of his stepdaughter, who graduated from Patapsco High School.
"She was a great girl, a loving mother. She did what she could do for anybody. She was one of the best daughters anybody could have," he said.
In addition to the two children she had with Joe Hillengas, Royston had a 5-year-old son from a previous relationship, Bull said.
