‘We need to dance for her’: Paoly Bedeski remembered for her compassion, love of life
Before her tragic death, Paoly Bedeski was working hard to launch her modeling career. But the 22-year-old Wichita native was as comfortable riding a skateboard as she was walking the runway.
“She’s been messing with a skateboard ever since she was a little girl,” her father, Lonny Bedeski, remembers. He used to worry about her getting hurt.
“That got into a lot of fights. ‘You’re going to break your leg.’ But she kept it up.”
He said his daughter’s defining character traits were compassion — “She’d go out of her way to help people” — positivity and an unwavering love for life.
That life was cut short on Oct. 13 in an east Wichita apartment fire. Paoly made the initial 911 call that brought firefighters to the Brookhollow Apartments. After naming the complex and repeating her apartment number twice to the 911 call-taker, she fell silent. Her last words were, “Help me, please.”
“What part of ‘Help, my apartment’s on fire’ means ‘Hey, I’m fine. Just come whenever you want,’” Lonny Bedeski wondered in an interview with The Eagle.
Firefighters were not told there was a woman in need of rescue in Apartment 306 on the second floor. They found her unresponsive 26 minutes after she placed her call. Fire Union President Ted Bush said last week that he’s confident crews on the scene would have saved Paoly’s life that morning if they knew where she was trapped.
The Bedeski family has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Paoly’s funeral service and other expenses. Her death was a devastating blow to her parents, her older brother, her three younger sisters and countless friends.
“She was too young,” Lonny Bedeski said. “A whole life ahead of her. She had big plans, and we helped as much as we did but most of that was her. That was her out there taking her own photos and learning how to dance. She was really driven and motivated.
“No matter what life threw at her, she was just always happy. Whatever it was, if she was having a bad day, she would find her way around it. That’s where the skateboard comes in and her little sisters came in.”
Model and role model
Paoly, an East High School grad, had a full-time job as an event planner at Century II. In her spare time, she began pursuing the modeling career she had always dreamed of. In September, she won the La Chica Raza pageant at Latin Fest-ICT hosted by radio station La Raza 102.5 FM.
“She won it and she was very proud of herself. She wore her banner everywhere she went,” said Anna Ledezma, who met Paoly through Ballet Folklorico Mexico En El Corazon, a group that teaches young people about the roots of Mexican dance culture.
“Her little sisters were interested in that and then she saw that and she started to do it and helped the little sisters with it,” Lonny Bedeski said.
Paoly was one of the older girls in the dance company, and she effortlessly took on a leadership role, Ledezma said.
“All the kids admired her,” she said.
“She always had a smile, was willing to cheer anyone up whenever they were down. She was always willing to dance.”
Ledezma remembers it was a Thursday when she saw her friend for the last time. Paoly hugged her and told her goodbye.
“When we did the candlelight (vigil), it was a big thing because the kids said ‘We need to dance for her,’ and they danced for Paoly right in front of her apartment,” Ledezma said.
‘No reason that this should happen to anybody’
The Bedeski family is calling for changes to the way Sedgwick County 911 handles emergency calls, citing the failure to communicate life-saving information about Paoly’s location and a 17-minute delay in dispatching additional trucks and firefighting resources to the apartments.
“I don’t want anybody fired. I don’t want anybody let go or resigned. I want change,” Lonny Bedeski said.
The County Commission has indicated it would support an independent analysis of how the Oct. 13 fire was handled, but not without a recommendation from the Sedgwick County 911 Advisory Board, which is meeting this week to discuss next steps.
Lonny Bedeski said no one with a seat on the advisory council, including county Emergency Communications Director Elora Forshee and Sheriff Jeff Easter, has contacted the family or their attorney at this point.
He said he hopes leaders move with an appropriate sense of urgency.
“This could be someone else’s kid. This could be someone else’s mom, someone else’s dad. I mean, it could be another one of my kids, someone in my family. There’s just no reason that this should happen to anybody.”
