Mourners Pay Tribute to Andrea Bower at Roadside Memorial

At Las Brisas Drive and Bloomingdale Avenue, in the Greater Brandon area of Riverview, a roadside memorial has been growing in tribute to the life of Andrea Bower, 13, who died from injuries sustained in a traffic crash there Nov. 16.

  Two teenagers and three women arrived at the corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and Las Brisas Drive on Nov. 17 carrying balloons, a sign, a stuffed animal and a head covering that Andrea Bower had always thought was cool. All in all, small signs of a great love and a tragic loss that family and friends are struggling to endure and a community at large is attempting to understand. “It’s a horrible tragedy,” said Lisa Kearney, whose family knew Bower and her family. “No one should have to go through this. And no child should have to feel this pain.” Bower, 13, a student at Giunta Middle School in Riverview, was struck Nov. 16 by a Ford sports-utility vehicle driven by a Riverview woman with two young children in tow. The accident happened at …

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