A 32-year-old Florida mom headed into the night on a motorcycle. Then came tragedy
When 32-year-old Tiffany Marie Cooke took off on her motorcycle the night of June 8, like she always did, she had no way of knowing it would be the last time she would ever hug or kiss her two little girls goodbye, their father said.
The Bradenton woman was on her Suzuki GSX-R 600, headed north on 26th Street West that night when an SUV headed southbound attempted to turn left 52nd Avenue Drive, in front of the motorcycle.
Cooke couldn’t avoid the vehicle and hit the right-side front door of the SUV at around 7:15 p.m.
She was critically injured and was taken to a hospital, where she died. Cooke was wearing a helmet.
Telling 7-year-old Ava and 4-year-old Scarlett their mom wasn’t coming home was the hardest thing Anthony McGonegal, their father and co-parent with Cooke, has ever had to do.
“This whole experience and situation has been completely overwhelming. And I’m keeping it together for them, because I have to,” McGonegal said.
Cooke loved spending time with the girls. She used to take them rollerskating. She would always try to be there for special school events when she could, like Ava’s Jog-A-Thon.
They were planning to bring the girls to Busch Gardens for the first time that weekend. But they never got to make that trip.
Cooke only had the Suzuki for a couple of months before the wreck, McGonegal said, but she was an experienced rider, having been around bikes since she was a kid with her dad. Before the Suzuki, she had a Yamaha.
But no matter how familiar you are with motorcycles, it’s the other drivers you have to look out for, McGonegal said.
He never expected for this to happen to Cooke, who he said was a safe rider and always wore a helmet, which she treated like part of a “suit of armor” required to ride.
“She rode like a grandma... I would make fun of her all the time for it. ... She rode like there were things to live for. Because there were. There were two little things to live for and she knew it,” he said.
Memorial services are still being planned, but McGonegal said he is aiming to do it by Sharky’s Pier in Venice.
A candlelight vigil took place June 11 at the crash site, and a sign-waving event to help raise awareness for Cooke and motorcycle safety was held June 18, with the help of the West Coast Biker Guardian Angels.
A GoFundMe was started to help cover funeral expenses and has so far raised $2,385 of its $15,000 goal.
“Tiffany was an amazing mom, a wonderful friend and adored by anyone she had met,” Alexandra Biancone, the organizer of the GoFundMe, wrote.
McGonegal said the money raised will go toward funeral expenses, and anything leftover will go into a trust for Ava and Scarlett.
The SUV driver, a 47-year-old Arcadia woman, and her 23-year-old Bradenton passenger suffered minor injuries. It is unclear if she will face charges as the crash remains under investigation, according to an email sent to the Bradenton Herald by the Florida Highway Patrol on Wednesday.
McGonegal said he wants justice, but most of all he wants people to remember Cooke’s light.
“She was a radiant star of life. She impacted everybody’s life she came in contact with. She was an amazing person and an amazing mother,” he said.
