- May 1, 2024
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The wife of 33-year-old Robert Laks would prefer not to remember her sense of dread when her phone remained silent at 6:45 a.m. on April 10. Robert had called Jessica Laks, 31, every morning without fail to tell her he was done with breakfast and was now on his commute from Palm Coast to Gainesville.
She would prefer not to remember the look on the face of Dolores Lentino, her friend who works with her at Atlantic Eye Care. At the Pine Cone Drive office that morning, Lentino tried to reassure her that everything was probably fine. To reassure her, Lentino called the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, and then the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office to see if there were any crash reports.
Jessica Laks would prefer not to remember the description of her husband’s truck, which was left mangled in the woods after a rock hauler and a garbage truck collided in front of him.
Instead, friends and family will remember him as a provider. He worked installing sprinklers with his father. Then, he started his own company and helped build many homes as a mason in Palm Coast under the name of Robert Laks Masonry. After the housing market crashed, he got a job in 2007 with Morgan Brothers Plumbing, in Gainesville, as a driver, and he eventually worked his way into management. He drove State Road 100 safely every day for six years.
The Lakses recently completed a five-year financial plan. They were just about to take the first step on their next five-year plan and buy a house in Palm Coast, the quiet community that Robert loved and chose as the place to raise his family.
Robert Laks will be remembered as someone who made people smile. Someone who helped support the high school softball teams. Someone who loved his wife and his children.
Laks called or visited Jessica at work often, and the staff became good friends with the family in the five years she has worked there. One day a couple of years ago, he went to Atlantic Eye Center for a checkup and said to Lentino, “I gotta tell you something.” He had a big smile, which made his face turn red, as it always did. “I did it again,” he said.
“You're having a child,” Lentino guessed, excited.
“Yep,” he said. Mason, the couple’s third child, will turn 2 on May 16.
Conner is Mason’s older brother. He’ll soon turn 8, and he’s playing football this year. He’s happy that he has a blue jersey, because that was his dad’s favorite color.
Jaden is 9, and she and her dad used to like listening to the same music. Robert Laks used to paint Jessica’s and Jaden’s fingernails and toenails. He highlighted their hair for them.
“As manly as he was, he pampered his women,” Lentino said.
Lentino, Dr. Alexandra Kostick, Office Manager Claudia Hart and the other employees and patients at Atlantic Eye Center have been heartbroken by the tragedy.
“I go to bed thinking about them. I wake up thinking about them,” Hart said.
BOX: In lieu of flowers
To help the Laks family, write a check to "Rob's Kids Memorial Fund / Jessica Lynn Laks," and send it to Wells Fargo Bank, 1050 Palm Coast Parkway, S.W., Palm Coast FL 32137. Call 447-5268.
To be with the family 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 20, visit Pinello Funeral Home, 1036 Debyshire Road, Daytona Beach. Conner Laks, 8, requests that people wear blue, his father's favorite color.
