Woman who survived devastating house fire killed by hit-and-run driver in Queens

A 47-year-old woman killed by a hit-and-run driver who smashed into her as she crossed an intersection in Queens was the survivor of a devastating fire that destroyed her home and all of her belongings last year, her family told the Daily News.

Lucia Grant was crossing 150th St. at North Conduit Ave., just steps from Baisley Pond Park in Kew Gardens Hills, about 6 a.m. Saturday when a driver slammed into her, police said.

“We went through a lot of trauma as a family. We was coming together … We was there. We was almost there,” Grant’s devastated daughter Chassidy Moore, 26, said in disbelief. “Honestly, I feel it’s surreal. It’s not adding up to me. It feels surreal,” she lamented.

Grant, who worked as a home health aide, had been living in a Holiday Inn near the intersection since a fire tore through her apartment last year, leaving her and family members homeless.

“We all went through a fire so we had to separate as a whole family,” Moore said. “Everything got burned up. We lost everything.”

“That’s why she was in the shelter,” Moore said. “The intersection, she was likely leaving her shelter,” and on her way to work when she was killed, she added.

After a difficult year, things had been looking up, and Moore said she recently received an apartment voucher and was starting to go apartment hunting.

Mother and daughter were planning a joint birthday party for their kids who were close in age, and were looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving together.

“I was looking forward to it. My son’s birthday is Dec. 3. My little brother’s birthday is Dec. 19,” Moore said. “We was planning all of this. We was planning their birthdays. We was trying to make they birthday together because they in the same month.”

Moore said her mom was “a grandmother and a strong mom. My mom got 13 kids. There’s a lot of us,” she said. Moore said she is the second oldest child in the large family.

Grant’s youngest child is just 5 years old. She was a grandmother to five children, Moore said, adding that she and her mother visited each other every Friday.

“I was seeing her on Fridays with my kids. I was just getting together with her so she could be a grandmother and see the kids. We was just getting better,” Moore said. “Every time we get together, we had a good time, honestly. We were always doing something.

“My mom was a beautiful soul, you know?”

Moore learned about the accident from her mother’s sister.

“My aunt called me and honestly, I damn-near fainted,” she said. “\It shattered my whole world. I’m still lost for words. I’m lost.”

“Everybody was crying. Everybody’s going through it right now. Everybody’s emotional. Raging and sadness,” Moore said.

Grant’s patients are also at a loss without her, Moore said.

“She had a lot of patients depending on her,” Moore explained, “One patient I know… she been my mom’s patient going on seven years. That patient right there, she cried on my phone last night. She was crying. I had to talk to her to go to sleep because she was crying,” Moore said.

Grant’s younger sister, Chanalylia Grant, 32, was also stunned at the family’s loss. “We’re mourning right now,” she said. “I was with my father when the detectives came” and told them Grant had been killed. “He’s suffering right now.”

“She was a good mother to her kids. She’s funny. Very outgoing. She loved music and dancing. She inspired me,” Grant said about her older sister.

Both Moore and Chanalylia Grant described how careful the victim was when crossing the street.

“How can it be a hit and run? My sister pays very good attention. She’s very observant,” Grant said.

“She was on a track team as a teenager. She runs fast. So I still can’t picture it happening like that. A car? You died because a car hit you? I’m still in shock,” Grant said.

Lucia Grant was in the crosswalk when she was hit by the motorist, who never stopped, police said. There have been no arrests and an investigation is underway, cops said.

“I want justice so she can sleep at rest, in peace,” the devastated sister said.“If anybody’s seen something, please say something.”