‘She just was a lovely person': Man remembers mother who died in bus fire

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A wreath hangs on the guardrail on Interstate 77 at West Boulevard near uptown Charlotte. It’s a small memorial for the woman killed in a church bus crash over the weekend.

Daisy Withers’ son, Jeffery Brown, placed it there. He spoke with Channel 9 about how he's remembering his mom.

"She just loved life and life loved her, and everyone that met her loved her,” Brown said.

In every picture of Withers, there is a glowing smile.

[RELATED: Driver charged after woman killed in fiery church bus crash on I-77]

"I just want people to know who she was,” her son said. “She was a very loving, caring individual."

Brown said she raised him and his two sisters by herself and worked as a caregiver to seniors.

"She just was a lovely person," Brown said.

Brown said he was angry after he heard the tragic news.

“But God came to my heart, and I forgive to God, because it was an accident," he said. “And one thing about my mother, that’s what she would have wanted me to do."

The bus belonged to Victory Christian Center, which is the church Brown said his mother attended for 20 years.

Investigators said the driver tried to make a last second exit, hit a barrier and the bus caught on fire.

Brown said he and his family forgive the driver.

"I can only imagine what he has to deal with internally ‘cause he knew my mother for 20 years," he said.

Church members told Brown what his mother was doing before the wreck.

"I talked to some people, and they told me when she got on that bus Sunday morning to go to church, she was just glowing,” Brown said. “She just had a glow, so she might have already knew."

Brown said he was fortunate to see his mother the day before the crash.

The bus driver, Scotty Garry Lewis, was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle.

Cox Media Group