December 10 – Nadine Milford began a long crusade for reform after her daughter and three grandchildren were killed in a car crash on Interstate 40 west of Albuquerque on Christmas Eve in 1992.

After arriving at the scene that bitter cold night, Nadine’s son, Lance Milford, told the newspaper that he and his mother embraced as they tried to process what had happened.

“The first words out of his mouth were, ‘We must forgive,’” he said. “I told her, ‘I don’t want to, Mom. “She kept saying it: “We have to forgive.” »

On Dec. 1, Vera “Nadine” Milford, 86, died of health complications, three decades after losing her daughter Melanie Cravens — whom she called her “sidekick” — and Cravens’ daughters Kandyce, 9 , Erin, 8, and Kacee Woodard, 5.

The drunk driver who drove the wrong way on I-40 and crashed into their vehicle, Gordon House, was convicted of vehicular homicide and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Nadine Milford has served with Mothers Against Drunk in New Mexico for years, pushing initiatives in the state Legislature that would try to curb drunken driving.

Lance Milford said his mother was Madd New Mexico’s president from 1996 to 2006. Madd New Mexico Executive Director Katrina Latka-Parkman called Milford a longtime volunteer “who served in great capacity to our organization “.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller called Nadine Milford a “New Mexican hero who turned her unimaginable personal tragedy into a powerful movement that saved countless lives in our state. Loss she made and we will continue the fight in his memory.

After the accident, Nadine Milford dedicated her life to making sure others would not experience what she did.

“I thought, you know, I had lost everything,” she said in a 2020 interview. “What did I have to lose? I had nothing to lose, and it was time for this state to wake up to the fact that people were dying on the highway and it’s a preventable situation.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen, and I determined in my heart that it wasn’t going to, or at least it was going to slow down. My daughters weren’t dying in vain, no.”

One person Nadine Milford has become friends with over the years is former MADD National President Karolyn Nunnallee, whose 10-year-old daughter Patty was killed in a drunken driving accident. drunkenness in Kentucky on May 14, 1988.

“I’ve never seen a woman work so hard, number one, helping victims; number two, helping push for legislation that lives life in the state of New Mexico and basically across the country,” Nunnallee said in a telephone interview.

Nadine Milford has championed DWI initiatives, such as installing ignition interlocks in vehicles driven by convicted drunk drivers in the state. In a 2002 story about a foreclosure bill, the Journal reported that several lawmakers credited Milford “for helping push for stricter CFI laws.”

“Nadine’s motto was ‘perseverance carries endurance,'” Nadine Milford’s friend Terry Huertaz said. “She lived that motto daily and it really showed in her advocacy.”

Nadine Milford has been recognized locally and nationally for her work. In 2008, she received a Public Service Award at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conference.

“The whole time she was doing this, she wasn’t paid a cent for her time,” Lance said. “Not a dime. She did this from her heart because she really cared about people and really wanted to solve this problem and make people’s lives better.”

In June 2002, Tom Udall – then a 3rd District congressman – gave a speech in the U.S. House of Representatives in honor of Nadine Milford, saying she “comforted countless families who have been affected by a drunken death.

Udall added: “She could have sunk beneath the depression that engulfed her. Instead, she relied on her deep faith and the love of her family and transformed seemingly overnight into the new reform of DWI. Nadine could never have imagined that she would one day be exploited to fight such a worthy fight.

Relatives said Nadine Milford had the ability to forgive derived from her strong faith.

House, the drunk driver convicted of killing Milford’s family, was released from prison in 2009 after serving less than 11 years. Lance Milford said he remembers the opportunity to speak at House’s parole hearing.

“It was about forgiveness and grace and allowing him to be released and be with his family,” he said. “It was a big part of the healing process for us and for him.”