A memorial to Lana Fellows remains at the intersection of Old Hickory Tree Road and Nolte Road, where she was killed in a crash on Nov. 24, 2024. (Photo/Ken Jackson)
The St. Cloud community was touched by tragedy one year ago today when 19-year-old St. Cloud High grad Lana Fellows was killed, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, when the car she was riding in as a passenger was struck. Her parents Megan and Rob Fellows offered this update.
We want to begin by expressing our deepest gratitude to the St. Cloud community for the overwhelming love and support you’ve shown our family since our daughter passed away on Nov. 24, 2024. In a time when our world has been shattered, so many of you have held us up. A special “thank you” to Shana Burns at St. Cloud High School, Heather Stover at Antigravity Orlando, and Nicole at Herseys Florist — the ways you continue to honor Lana are profoundly meaningful to us. Your kindness keeps her memory alive in the most beautiful ways.
To our friends and family who showed up and stayed — thank you. Your constant check-ins, your presence, your willingness to sit with us in our grief have been tiny lights in an otherwise dark season. We could not do this without you.
We also want to share an update about the accident that took Lana from us. Lana had been attending the College of William and Mary and had come home for Thanksgiving break — excited to see us, to reconnect, to tell us about her plans for the future. She went out with her boyfriend to visit friends, and on their way back home for dinner, he took Old Hickory Tree Road, a route he didn’t know. In the darkness, he missed the stop sign turning onto Nolte Road. Their car was struck directly on Lana’s side by a 74-year-old driver traveling over 65 mph in a 45 mph zone. Her boyfriend survived and has been cleared of any wrongdoing, while the other driver received a seatbelt violation.
If we could ask for anything this holiday season, it is this: please, please drive safely on our roads. No parent should ever endure what we now live with every single day — the loss of a child. Our only child. Lana should be home right now, filling our house with laughter, sharing her dreams, and getting ready to study abroad next semester. Our home is quieter without her, and our hearts will never be the same.
Lana lived by the words she often shared: “Create the world you love and always be kind.” We hold onto that now.
A scholarship fund has been created in her name through the Education Foundation Osceola County. It would mean the world to us if you could donate. Your support helps keep Lana’s spirit, her love for learning, and her bright future burning in the hearts of others.
Go to https://secure.qgiv.com/for/theeducationfoundationosceolacounty, Scroll to Scholarships and enter “Arts Alive Lana Fellows”.
