On days when it’s rained so hard the west part of Hoboken was flooded, and on days when the sunlight was so bright it bounced off every car parked at the Malibu Diner, the candle has been lit. In a small glass shrine across from the diner on busy 14th Street, next to the BP gas station, someone has been lighting a candle on and off to memorialize a waitress who was struck and killed there by an ambulance early in the morning on Sept. 17, 2011. Sometimes the small candle goes for days without being lit, and then it’s mysteriously burning again.
Around 5:45 a.m. on a Saturday morning five years ago, Irina Alekseeva, 27, left her shift as a waitress at the diner and went across the street to buy items from the gas station. A passing ambulance accidentally drove onto the curb and struck her. The driver told police that he was glancing at a clipboard with patient information, according to reports.
Friends placed a small memorial at the site soon after, containing a candle and two photos of the young waitress. Even though the memorial is on gas station property, between a bush and the sidewalk, no one has disturbed it for five years. Passersby frequently find the candle lit inside.
Alekseeva had been married to Pablo Spadavecchia, then 37, a regular at the diner who had met her there.
After Alekseeva was killed, Failla Funeral Home in Hoboken donated a casket to carry her to the Russian Consulate so she could be buried in her hometown. Spadavecchia and Alekseeva’s friend, Anastasia Milyutinna of Jersey City, accompanied her body there. A mass was held a week later at the Russian Orthodox Church in her home village of Zelenchukskaya.
Last week, Spadavecchia, who is one of the owners of the Empanada Café in Hoboken, said he still has trouble believing she’s gone.
“I like to think she’s in Russia,” he said. “I picture her home with her family.”
The young waitress was survived by two sisters and her mother, who still lived in Russia.
Spadavecchia said that he hasn’t been lighting the candle, and that he believes her friend Anastasia lights it. But he has placed flowers at the site and has visited the spot late at night. He said that sometimes, he has the flowers delivered there, because it is difficult for him to go past there.
“She’s going to be my angel always.” – Pablo Spadavecchia
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Yet he wants the memorial to stay there forever, because his late wife doesn’t have a grave in the United States for him to visit.
“She’s an angel,” he said. “She’s going to be my angel always. She looks down on us.”
He said that when he met her at the diner, he was taken by her green eyes and sweet personality.
He said that he wants to visit her burial site again someday, but it’s near the Russia/Georgia border and it’s difficult for Americans to get there. After she died, it took a long time to get the paperwork together for him to accompany her body there.
Remembered
Last week, Nick Babalis, one of the owners of the Malibu Diner, was surprised when told the anniversary of Alekseeva’s death was coming up. “That’s right,” he said reflectively. “Five years.”
He remembered Alekseeva as a “good person, good waitress.”
“It was a tragedy,” he said. “She was too young.”
After the incident, the ambulance driver was not charged with a crime and was not found to be under the influence of any substances.
Spadavecchia said he is not angry.
“To my understanding, it was a mistake,” he said last week. “I can’t be angry. I’m pretty sure in his life, he’s thought about what happened. I’m sure when something happens like that, if you take a life, it’s hard to sleep at night. I’m sure he has a family. I’ve never met him, but I’m pretty sure he probably went through a tough time himself.”
Spadavecchia has not married again, but is in a serious relationship.
The memorial contains two pictures of Alekseeva, a candle, and several flowers. It’s located on 14th Street near Willow Avenue.
“It’s going to be there for a long, long time,” Spadavecchia said. “Everyone who knew her knew what a kind person she was.”
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