Victim of TriMet bus crash: Jenee Hammel, who planned to wed in June, leaves 2-year-old son

Jeneé Hammel, 26, loved, of all things, yardwork, said her father, Robert Hammel Jr. of Southeast Portland.

"She had just finished all the jobs she wanted to do on her house the morning this happened," Robert Hammel said. "She also loved art, oil painting and singing. She had a constant, bubbly personality."

Jeneé Hammel's parents divorced when she was attending Madison High School in Portland, and she moved to New Jersey with her mother, Vickie, and two brothers, Ryan and Joshua.

Upon graduation, Hammel got a job as a manager of an Applebee's restaurant, where she met Dan Marciano. The couple eventually moved to Gresham, where Hammel was hired at the Gresham Applebee's, working full time until she and Marciano had a baby boy, Coby.

"We have a lot of family around him now, trying to keep him occupied," Robert Hammel said of 2-year-old Coby. "We haven't told him that his mother is gone ... but he's wondering where his mommy is at."

The couple were planning to marry in June in Portland; everything was set, right down to Hammel's wedding dress. Both Hammel and Danielle Sale, who also died Saturday night, were bridesmaids at Ryan and Jamie Hammel's wedding four months ago. Ryan and Jamie Hammel were not seriously injured when the TriMet bus turned into the group.

"They were beyond being a very tight group, they were best friends, family," Robert Hammel said.

Jeneé Hammel's husband-to-be was hired as a Gresham police officer and was scheduled to start his training at the Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem on Monday, Robert Hammel said. He said the department has granted Marciano a leave of absence.

"He's doing the worst of all of us," Robert Hammel said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/04/victim_of_trimet_bus_crash_jen.html