Patricia Ross.

I am writing in hopes that you will publish this about the dangers that come with not paying attention in parking lots.

My grandmother was killed last Tuesday, May 9, as she was walking out of a local store right after celebrating her 69th wedding anniversary with my grandfather. He sat in his car in the first handicap spot and watched the whole thing happen as she walked across the crosswalk.

My grandmother was a beautiful and vibrant woman, and for being 91 years old, she was still living her best life and doing her thing. There have been four accidents to date at this parking lot, alone, in Cullman, with my grandmother ending in a fatality because of how hard she was hit.

My grandmother was a devout Catholic at Sacred Heart church and an amazing cook. People all over town knew her for her chicken salad and her strawberry pretzel salad that she sold at The Creamery Restaurant when it was still around. She still sold her amazing cookies and cheese straws to this day, for which will never get the recipe. She was a socialite in the community and she loved her family fiercely. People have to slow down, get off their phones and pay attention everywhere — and especially in parking lots. I would like for a petition to be set up to have more signage, caution signs and speed bumps in parking lots so that no one has to go through this ever again. Our family will forever be traumatized by this tragedy and can never go to this store again for our normal weekly shopping.

We want her legacy to live on, some good to come out of this tragedy and people to be saved.

My grandmother was a very small, tiny woman and this could have been just as easily a child. We are thankful that we got to spend 91 years with this beautiful woman, but my poor grandfather has to relive watching the moment that she was killed every day.

As a family, we are also praying for the woman that hit her as her life is also forever changed.

What can we do as a community to get a petition started to add caution signs or speed bumps in that parking lot? I think it’s the very least the property management company can do to try and save a life. Everyone needs to know how amazing and beautiful my grandmother was and how this never should have happened or happen to anyone else.

Brittany Morrison