COVINGTON, Ga.– A Newton County family’s Thanksgiving celebration turned into an unimaginable nightmare Thursday night when a two-vehicle collision on Fairview Road took the lives of 19-year-old Jaylah Donald and the baby boy she was expecting in less than two months.
Georgia State Patrol troopers say the crash happened shortly after 10 p.m. as Jaylah’s mother, who has not been publicly identified, was backing out of a relative’s driveway to give a neighbor a ride home. A second vehicle traveling along Fairview Road slammed into the passenger side of their car—the exact spot where Jaylah was seated.
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First responders pronounced Jaylah and her unborn son dead at the scene. Her mother, the driver, suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she remains on a ventilator early Saturday. Family members say doctors have not yet been able to tell them whether she will survive.
“She was just giving somebody a ride home after we all had the best Thanksgiving,” Jaylah’s grandmother, Genette Anderson, told reporters through tears outside the home where the family had gathered only hours earlier. “We were laughing, eating, taking pictures… and now this.”
Friends and relatives describe Jaylah as pure light. “That girl’s smile was contagious from the time she was in diapers,” said godmother Nekeshia Johnson. “She won ‘Best Smile’ at daycare when she was three years old, and nothing ever changed. Jaylah walked in a room and everybody felt better.”
The Atlanta teen was seven months pregnant and had recently chosen the name Jayce for her son. Family members said she was excitedly preparing for motherhood and had spent part of Thanksgiving showing off ultrasound pictures and tiny onesies.
“Jayce never got to take a breath, and Jaylah never got to hold him,” Anderson whispered. “We’re just asking everybody to please keep us in your prayers right now, because we don’t know how we’re going to make it through this.”
The driver of the other vehicle was treated at the scene for minor injuries and released. Troopers say charges are pending as the investigation continues, including whether speed or impairment played a role.
A GoFundMe created overnight to help with funeral expenses and medical bills for Jaylah’s mother had already surpassed $18,000 by Saturday morning, with hundreds of donors leaving messages remembering Jaylah’s radiant smile.
“Keep smiling down on us, baby girl,” one donor wrote. “Heaven just got a whole lot brighter.”