About 200 friends, family members and even strangers gathered Friday night to remember two young brothers in Fort Worth who were electrocuted while playing in a park.
Alex Lopez, 12, and his brother Isaiah Lopez, 11, came into contact with downed power lines while walking through a wooded area of Oakland Lake Park near Interstate 30 and Oakland Boulevard on Wednesday.
"Alex and Isaiah, you might as well call them anybody's kids, because around here it could have been," said their uncle, George Lopez. "For as much as we would like to give them one more hug, one more kiss, maybe one more time to shoot some baskets or something, we just can't. And we have to understand God's will is greater than ours."
Alex had stepped in a puddle, not knowing a power line had energized it. The line had apparently fallen in a storm early that morning.
Isaiah told some friends to get help and that he would save his older brother, family members said.
They both were electrocuted.
"We were like brothers," said 11-year-old Juan Hernandez, who lives next door to the family. "They were like brothers to me, because I knew them for seven years. And when I heard (the news) it broke my heart."
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He and other young friends wrote heartfelt letters.
"I can't remember all the good times because I lost count and I love you guys," Hernandez wrote.
Others at Friday's vigil also wrote their own messages on balloons.
"Go fly in heaven," one said.
"I never got to say goodbye. So I'll say it now," another said.
At the end, they released the balloons into the air – a final goodbye to two young brothers whose lives ended so suddenly.
"They'll go straight to heaven and they'll get all these messages," George Lopez said.
