Rebecca Townsend, who died after she was struck by car on July 2, completed a bucket list item she had for herself by saving the life of another friend during the accident.
The Connecticut teenager, 17, had recently graduated from Immaculate High School in Danbury and was planning on attending
Notre Dame University in the fall, according to BuzzFeed.
The News-Times reported that Townsend was killed while crossing the street with another classmate, 17-year-old Benjamin Arne, when they were struck by a vehicle. Arne suffered serious injuries and was initially listed in serious but stable condition at Danbury Hospital.
Victoria Townsend, Rebecca Townsend's sister, told BuzzFeed that Arne visited her family when he was released and told them that Rebecca had pushed him out of the way of the oncoming car but could not get out of the way herself.
"He said, 'The last thing I remember is Rebecca pushing me and telling me to hurry up,'" Victoria Townsend told BuzzFeed.
It was only afterward while she was in her sister's room with other family members that Victoria Townsend discovered Rebecca's bucket list that she had written down some time ago. Her goals included traveling to Spain, kissing in the rain, and saving a life.
The sister told BuzzFeed that her family knew the first two items had been accomplished and then she remembered Arne's comment about the accident.
"It was a little sign that she was OK," Victoria Townsend told BuzzFeed. Another sister, Monica Townsend, talked about the bucket list in her eulogy on
July 7, according to the New York Daily News.
"Who knows why Rebecca was looking at that letter the night she left us . . . but I think it's her little way of telling us she is OK; she accomplished what she needed to; she made it," Monica Townsend said in the eulogy.
While in high school, Townsend founded the Immaculate chapter of She's the First, a charity for third-world girls, according to the News-Times. The charity supported girls' education initiatives in low-income countries.
Authorities are reportedly still investigating the accident that involved a car driven by 23-year-old Krista Consalva and are still looking for witnesses.