The plane crash that killed one person and injured five others on a Miami bridge Saturday brought back painful memories for a mother who tragically lost her son in another small plane crash last year.
“Some days it’s really hard,” Megan Bishop said. “I miss him a lot.”
On March 15, 2021, Bishop and her son Taylor were driving near Southwest 72nd Avenue and Southwest 13th Street in Pembroke Pines when a small plane crashed into their SUV and burst into flames.
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“I remember seeing the plane coming, but after that, it’s kind of a blank,” Bishop said.
The impact killed the four-year-old along with two people on board the plane.
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“I don’t even remember breathing in that moment,” she said. “I felt like everything had just been taken from me. When you’re a parent, you identify as being a parent to a child. Now, I don’t have my child."
It’s a dark memory Bishop said resurfaced when she saw images of another plane crash on the Haulover Inlet Bridge last weekend.
“This one caught me so off guard that it just really triggered me,” Bishop said. “It took me back to a place that I’ve been trying so hard to overcome and get through.”
On Saturday, pilot Narciso Torres died and five others were hurt after a small plane crashed into an SUV on the bridge.
Police said a mother and two small children were inside the car but weren’t seriously hurt.
“Those images and those sounds, they stay with you forever,” Bishop said.
It’s pain the mother said she’s processing by finding ways to honor her son’s memory.
Last week, the street where he was killed was renamed Taylor Bishop Avenue.
The city also put in a landmark and a bench in Taylor’s name, painted with his favorite things: baseballs and teddy bears.
“When you look at that bench, you knew exactly who he was,” Bishop said. “It’s all the things he loved.”
The mother also started a nonprofit collecting teddy bears for first responders to give to kids on emergency calls.
Along with honoring her son, she wants to share this message: time is fleeting.
“Don’t take people for granted,” she said. “Don’t take time for granted.”
