Grace Coleman woke up in a hospital bed, groggy, confused, in pain and sedated. Her left arm was in a sling. Her right arm was handcuffed to the bed. Something was very wrong, but she didn’t know just what.

A nurse knew only a few details about the fatal crash that left two parents dead and three young daughters as survivors. An officer sat silently as the nurse delivered the news – that she had been the driver that hit them.

“I didn’t know what happened, who I killed, how I even got into my car that night,” Coleman said. “Because the last thing I remembered, I was nowhere near my car — so I had a lot of questions.”

Today, Coleman is engaged in the process of trying to change herself – and make amends for her actions. But on Dec. 8, 2020, she was in a very different place.

That evening, Coleman’s boyfriend dropped her off at home in a blackout state after a day fueled  by alcohol, drugs and their toxic relationship. Instead of entering her home in Newport Beach, California, she climbed into her Range Rover and drove off.

Minutes later, she crashed into a car carrying a family of five — killing Gabriela Andrade and Henry Saldana-Mejia. 

DUI homicides leave survivors and communities looking for answers. They can also leave the offender struggling to reconcile what they did with who they are, as CalMatters reported in a recent story.

More than 1,300 alcohol-related driving deaths occur each year in California, though it is hard to say just how many people are prosecuted and convicted for causing the fatalities. Since Coleman learned of what she did that terrible night, she has been on “a path into recovery, rehabilitation and mental wellness,” according to CalMatters.

“It’s not even just as simple as, oh, I wake up in prison every day and that in itself is a reminder of the harm that I’ve caused,” she told reporter Joe Garcia. “It’s the way that I choose to live my life. It’s being in AA. It’s being a part of these DUI programs. Sharing my story in those spaces, that’s what keeps me sober.”

While awaiting trial in Orange County Jail, Coleman met with surviving relatives of the family — a rare opportunity for an offender, even rarer for someone who hasn’t been convicted. Coleman listened to their pain, felt anguish over their loss and tried hard to answer their questions through her tears.

Soon after that meeting, she pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and accepted a 21 years-to-life in prison sentence.

“For me, it definitely started with that day,” she said. “Any bit of denial that I was stuck in was gone. Any bit of selfishness that I still had — and caring about myself and what was going to happen to me — didn’t seem to matter as much anymore.”

To read the full story of her path to rehabilitation – and the surprising opinions of the attorney for the children whose parents she killed – click here.