SOUTH HADLEY — Jessica Godek was good with babies; that’s why God needed her in heaven. That’s how her mother, Roxanne Godek, makes sense of the single-car accident that claimed her daughter’s life early on the morning of April 22.
“He needed someone to get all the babies to sleep at the same time,” her mother said, laughing and crying at the same time. “He was probably up there pulling his hair.”
“I think that was her purpose. I think that’s why he called her so soon, never thinking what we were going to think about it.”
Godek, 23, died after her white 2015 Chevy Cruze drifted off West Street in Ludlow at about 2:30 a.m., striking a tree trunk. No other vehicles or passengers were involved in the crash, and police said Friday that it remains under investigation.
Godek worked at Playful Minds Learning Center in South Hadley, and she lived with her family on Bach Lane. She loved children, sports, country music and being outside. If she wasn’t working — she was “the first person to come into work and last to leave” — Godek enjoyed hanging at Lithia Springs with her family and friends, playing soccer or basketball and going shopping with her mom.
“It’s not fair. She should be here,” Roxanne Godek said. “She comes from a wonderful family and she will be missed. Not just by her family, but by everyone who knew her.”
The last time Roxanne Godek saw her eldest daughter was Friday evening. She was getting ready to go out with friends.
“Where’d you get that shirt?” she remembers asking her daughter, to which she replied: “‘I’ve had this shirt!’”
She never expected the conversation would be their last.
“When you see your child go out, you’re not thinking they’re never going to come home,” she said. “Just be careful driving — it’s the thing we always say to them.”
“I can’t sleep if I know my children are not home,” she said. “You lay there and listen.”
When her daughter wasn’t home by 3 a.m., Godek said she knew something had gone awry.
“That’s when I said, ‘Something’s not right here,’” she recalled.
Roxanne isn’t sure what went wrong; her daughter was always a careful driver, she said. “Only God and her know what happened.”
Jessica Godek leaves behind a close-knit family, many members of which occupy neighboring sections of Bach Lane. Cousins Christopher, David and Joey join Jessica Godek’s siblings, parents and other relatives in mourning the loss of someone who could so easily “light up a room.”
Her loss is also palpable at Playful Minds in South Hadley, where she was recently promoted to head teacher. Paige Thompson-Westcott, owner of the center, said she worked with Godek for two years.
“She was phenomenal,” Thompson-Westcott said. “She was my right-hand woman.”
She was talented with the children — “nurturing but firm” — and would bend over backward to ensure they had everything they needed. If a family wasn’t able to buy a new coat or was wanting for something Godek felt was important, Thompson-Westcott said she’d go searching in online forums and clothing swaps to find a way to provide it.
“She never called out,” Thompson-Westcott said. “I’d have to push her out the door to take a day off.”
Those who knew her say Godek was very particular about things, including buying a big stroller for her workplace. Thompson-Westcott said that when Godek insisted upon buying a stroller that was around $2,000, she was leery of the price tag. To combat her boss’s skepticism she launched a fundraising campaign, raising $1,000.
“She knew what she wanted and that’s how it had to be,” her mother said.
Thompson-Westcott said she decided to match the funds Godek worked so hard to raise, and the stroller ended up coming in a week before her accident. She hadn’t yet gotten to use it because it rained for most of last week.
“On Monday we put them all in the stroller and went for a long walk,” Thompson-Westcott said of the center’s first day without its lead teacher.
“The kids are really feeling it.”
Friends remember her enthusiasm for life.
“My world has stopped a little bit and the world has stopped a little bit — to lose such a good person,” said Charmain Maximo, of Holyoke, a friend who worked with her at the Greater Holyoke YMCA summer camp. “If you were able to be around her then you were one of the lucky few people in the world.”
Urooj Kahn said they met in high school and became instant pals.
“She was very real,” she said of her late friend. “She was down to earth and so, so kind. One of the few genuine people I think I’ve ever known.”
Godek was born May 24, 1993. An armchair in the living room of her family home was stacked this week with photo albums when a visitor came by. Roxanne Godek shuffled through the photos, pointing at what her daughter would consider embarrassing childhood photos.
“I’m digging up everything,” she said. “She’d be so mad at me.”
Godek taught basketball to children at Mater Dolorosa in Holyoke, and helped coach South Holyoke Basketball. Her mother said Jess decided during her junior year of high school that she wanted to be a teacher.
And she was good at caring for children. She’d gotten into such a rhythm with the babies at Playful Minds that she could put seven babies down for a nap all at the same time.
“She had her system,” Roxanne Godek said. “I always said she was going to make a great mom.”
Every Thursday she volunteered with her dad at the Knights of Columbus, helping organize bingo. She was a great party planner, and she loved Harry Potter. Her favorite foods were devil dogs, pizza and sour candies.
Roxanne Godek said she’s already missing her baby, her best friend and walking buddy.
“That hill kicked my butt,” Roxanne Godek said of the hill along Pearl Street. “She’d be going ‘blah, blah, blah’ up the hill. And then we’d get to the top and then she’d go, ‘deep breath.’”
As the clock nears 3:30 p.m. each day, the loss gets harder to bear. “That’s when she’d come home,” Roxanne Godek said, her voice breaking.
She hopes they one day meet again — then she amended that hope, with tears in her eyes, by quoting a line from one of her daughter’s favorite movies, “Gladiator.”
“But not yet.”
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.