KEIZER, Ore. — Nurses in the region are remembering a longtime nursing instructor who was killed by a suspected drunk driver in Keizer on Saturday morning.
For 14 years, Moira Hughes was a nursing instructor at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.
"She just embodied kindness, empathy, and compassion," said Bethany Tapio, a nurse and former student of Hughes. "She was so reassuring we could do it and cheering us on while also meeting the objectives of what we needed to learn as nurses."
Fellow nurse Nicole Garcia said Hughes was "an instructor who genuinely cared and not just about growing up nurses but who we were as people."
It makes what happened to her over the weekend all the more tragic.
Authorities said Hughes and her husband, George Heitz, were in their home on Trail Avenue Northeast in Keizer when a suspected drunk driver plowed into the house around 7:40 a.m. Saturday.
Hughes was killed. Heitz was badly injured.
"To be sitting in the safety and comfort of your home and have your life be ended and in her husband's case dramatically shattered and changed profoundly in an instant ... yeah, that morning I thought, that could be us," Garcia said. "My husband and I in our living room."
Detectives identified the driver as 41-year-old Andrew Modine of Keizer.
According to court documents, a witness found Modine behind the wheel of his car singing and headbanging to blaring music. Court documents also indicate that at the time of the crash, Modine was on probation for a prior DUII. The Oregonian reported that crime resulted in the death of Modine's brother.
"If anyone would have a forgiving, empathetic spirit towards this person it was Moira," Garcia said.
That sentiment is echoed by Tapio.
"This is what nursing is and when I say Moira embodied nursing, that's what she embodied," Tapio said. "That love, compassion and care and acceptance of somebody no matter who they are or what they've done."
Modine is facing a number of charges including manslaughter, assault, reckless driving and DUII.