By Colleen Jenkins, Times Staff Writer
Friday, January 21, 2011
Louie Olivarez stands at the corner of Kennedy and North Boulevard, the site of an accident in 2009 that killed Eric Nicoletti. Olivarez had been waiting for three organ transplants, and now has a deep connection to Nicoletti’s family.
TAMPA — Dorothy Nicoletti walked out of Tampa General Hospital on a fall evening in 2009, devastated.
Louie Olivarez arrived at the same hospital hours later, anxious.
One had witnessed death. The other needed help.
The strangers did not yet realize that their lives were already connected.
• • •
Dorothy's son Erik had wanted his college experience to include warm weather and a good writing program. His search brought him from New York's lower Hudson Valley to Florida, where he enrolled at the University of Tampa.
Erik loved the school. He lived on the honors floor and made friends easily. His ...