'We're still coming to terms that she's not here anymore'
Scores remember Milena Del Valle
Her bright smile was everywhere, gilded in a gold frame, beside a bouquet of yellow roses, and on T-shirts worn by many of her friends and family.
Below the glowing image on the T-shirts, there was the message, "We'll always love you."
A year ago yesterday, as the 38-year-old mother of three and her husband drove in their Buick to Logan Airport, huge concrete slabs fell from the ceiling of the Interstate 90 connector tunnel and instantly killed Milena Del Valle.
Last night, scores of friends and family attended a service in her memory at her church in Jamaica Plain, Iglesia Hispana de la Comunidad.
"We all feel sad today," said Lizy del Valle, Milena's stepdaughter. "The year passed very quickly. We're still coming to terms that she's not here anymore."
The service was held as the National Transportation Safety Board released a long-awaited report in Washington that found Big Dig contractors used the wrong epoxy to secure the tunnel's heavy ceiling panels, allowing bolts to "creep " over time.
The agency said a fast-drying epoxy used throughout the Interstate 90 connector tunnel holds 25 percent less load than conventional epoxy. The fast-set epoxy had "exceptionally poor creep resistance" that allowed the bolts to slip, investigators said at a hearing.
The service included Del Valle's husband, Angel. Her daughter, Raquel Ibarra Mora, 24, was expected after spending the day at the hearing in Washington, but because of flight problems she did not arrive in time for the service.
The Big Dig has been plagued for years by reports of corruption, leaks, and cost overruns. But Del Valle's death on July 10, 2006, increased concerns about the project after reports of substandard construction and insufficient oversight.
In recent weeks, lawyers for Del Valle's family have pressed a lawsuit against the Turnpike Authority and more than a dozen contractors. Recent efforts to settle the lawsuit, which the plaintiffs argue is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, have been unsuccessful.
Before the service last night, lawyer Jeffrey Denner, who represents Angel Del Valle, said he expects the NTSB's report to help speed up a settlement.
The tragedy occurred about 10:45 on a Monday night last year when Angel Del Valle was driving with his wife through the I-90 connector. They were going to pick up his brother, Francisco, who was returning from a trip to Puerto Rico.
Milena -- an immigrant from San José, Costa Rica, who arrived in the United States about five years before her death -- worked in facility maintenance at Mississippi's Restaurant in Mission Hill. She also occasionally handed out copies of El Planeta, a Brookline-based Spanish weekly newspaper, at Forest Hills T-station in Jamaica Plain and Orient Heights station in East Boston.
Angel Del Valle worked as a full-time clerk behind the meat counter at Hi-Lo Foods on Centre Street, a supermarket popular with Latino shoppers. When he came home from work, she would take off his shoes and rub his feet. He did the cooking. The two were nearly always together.
The couple did not have children together, but Milena had three adult children living in Costa Rica. She had left her family to find a job that would help support her mother, two sons, and daughter.
Her goal was to help move her children to the States. Until then, she hoped to make enough money to help her daughter start an ice cream shop, Angel Del Valle has told the Globe.
At last night's service, those attending sang songs in Milena's honor and watched a slide show and videos of her and her family.
Speaking at the service, Lisa de Paz, the wife of the church's pastor, told those who packed the pews that Milena was a woman no one will forget.
"It's has been a hard year . . . of sadness and affliction," she said. "We miss her voice singing in our service, her phone calls when someone missed a service, and the coffee she made every Sunday . . .. We know that she's just sleeping, and one day, sooner or later, we'll see her again, in eternity."
After the service, well-wishers hugged Angel Del Valle and gave him a dozen white roses. He brushed back tears.
"Every day, every minute, every moment, I remember what happened," he said. 