Flowers rest at the corner of Morrisville Parkway and Louis
Stephens Drive in Cary Monday. They make up a memorial for 15-year-old Lena Goff,
who died in a car
crash Friday.

Friends and family describe her as a sweet, vibrant girl
with an infectious laugh.

“You could be down in the dumps, and you just laugh with her,”
her mother Erica Jaber Goff said through tears.

She said her daughter loved singing and wrestling at Green
Hope High School. She had upcoming events planned for both.

“I’m very sad, because we won’t be able to go to her concert
on the 18th and hear her sing,” Jaber Goff said. “[She was] excited
for her wrestling weekend, her first match. She was so excited, and I was so
excited to be there.”

WRAL News asked Jaber Goff what she wanted to convey the most to
people.

“I want them to slow down when they’re driving … It’s not a
hurry. [If] somebody
needs to be late, be late, be five minutes late rather than being dead,” she said.

Jaber Goff says Lena was on the way to get food when the
crash happened. Police say she was in the car with four other teens Friday when
their car tried to turn left and hit another car.

Cary police charged the teenage driver, who is younger than 18,
with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and failure to yield the right of way.

Neither Lena’s parents nor her friends knew the driver.

Jaber Goff said she’s living her biggest fear: losing a
child.

“A teenager, when this whole driving thing starts, you only
have control when they’re with you. You can’t keep them in a bubble, like I
wish I could,” she said. “I’ll never see her graduate; I’ll never see her go to
prom. I won’t be able to fill up her Christmas stocking and see that she loved
all of the surprises in it.”

However, Jaber Goff is thankful for the time she did get
with Lena. She said weather delays on Friday gave her time with her that she
didn’t realize would be so valuable.

“I watched the video from my doorbell camera of her leaving
the house for the last time that morning. [It was] just a regular morning,” she
recalled. “I thank Wake County for having a two-hour delay on Friday. It gave
me so much extra time with my daughter. Good conversations in the morning.”

Lena’s friends huddled together on Monday, surrounding the memorial
they created. They held each other as they cried.

“She was always the first person I called whenever I was
upset. She was always there for me whenever I needed it,” Selden Bennet said. “She
was the best friend I ever had.”

“I spent that Thursday night with Lena, not knowing that
that the laughs and everything was ending that night,” Ava Carter said. “It’s
something I never would have expected, to lose one of the brightest souls in my
life.”

Carter said she found out about Lena’s death after getting
home from a basketball game.

“I had just been texting her while I was at the game, not
knowing that the entire time I was texting her, she was gone,” she said.

Elana Scheiner said her son Dexter Marino and Lena were “besties.”

She recalled “so many memories of hearing them giggle, watching
TikToks and recording many TikToks and celebrating each other’s birthdays since
6th grade and memories of them playing and swimming at each other’s
neighborhood pools.”

Scheiner describes Lena’s death as a nightmare.

“Just a nightmare for all involved, with ripples felt all
over her family and friends and school community’s base. Lena was truly a shining
light personality, with always a hug and smile for me as Dexter’s mom. We’re
all grappling with the loss,” she said.

Family and friends have created
a GoFundMe to help raise money for Goff’s family. 

“We are absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring, the love,
the caring,” Jaber Goff told WRAL News.

She said many of Lena’s friends also sent letters to the
family.