SAN ANTONIO — Tragedy on the road. A loving father who lost his load of trash bins off 410 was hit and killed by an 18-wheeler. On Saturday morning, the family will be saying their final goodbyes.
Sandy Reyna said her husband Hector Reyna was a good man taken too soon.
"We have been tormented," she said. "We needed him. We depended on him. Now, not having him in our lives is the hardest thing we are going to have to do, to be without him."
It has only been a matter of days of Sandy living her life without the love of her life.
"I want to say beautiful things about him because he was a beautiful man," she said.
Her husband of more than 40 years was tragically killed last Wednesday on July 31. Police said Reyna, who worked in the waste industry, lost the load he was hauling on the highway at 410 near Sinclair on the southeast side. According to the report, witnesses said he was removing the trash bins out of the roadway when a driver of a 18-wheeler hit Reyna and killed him.
"It hurt my heart so bad," she said. "It hit me really bad to hear, that he was out there that he had really gotten hit. And it wasn't a dream that I had to wake up out of."
The report also stated that witnesses said there was no way the driver could have avoided hitting the 62-year-old. Sandy said she learned a pastor and other truck driver both stopped to help.
"He had all these angels around him," she said. "I was like okay good my husband wasn't by himself."
She said her husband, a loving father, also loved his country and served in the Army. She said he always wanted to be a garbage man, and worked his way from a driver to owning companies.
"It is so sad, he can't enjoy what he did," Sandy said. "Because we were going to retire together, and get old together. And now, we can't."
The grieving wife and the family want him to be remembered as a family man that was loyal and hardworking. The type of man they said would make friends with anyone.
"He was a wonderful man in this world," she said. "And a good man was taken away."
Saturday morning, Reyna will be laid to rest. He will get a 21-gun salute. The family said he always wanted a procession with garbage trucks and they are going to make that happen. The family said there will be 20 trucks from seven different companies joining the lineup.