LEWISTON – Jessica Jordan spent part of Christmas pretending her only brother, Jacob Roy, was still alive.

Her 8-year-old daughter loved her Uncle Jake, a happy-go-lucky young man who made her smile. To know he’d died – one of six people who perished in Maine’s worst car crash in more than two years – would have spoiled the little girl’s holiday.

“It’s a roller coaster ride,” Jessica Jordan said Tuesday. “I tried to keep it light.”

The grief comes in waves, though.

On Sunday morning, she was about to begin baking Christmas cookies when a friend began banging on the door of her New Auburn apartment.

She told Jordan that Jake was in a horrible accident.

The accident happened just after midnight on Sunday on Route 122, just north of the Poland Spring Water plant in Poland.

Police said Tuesday it will likely be weeks before they know what caused the two cars to collide head on.

In one, Laura Caron, 25, and Steven Walton, 27, an engaged couple from Poland, were on their way home with their dog, Achilles. In the other, four young men – Roy, 20, Michael Cournoyer, 20, Robert Bruce, 19 and 18-year-old Matthew Manley – were on their way back to Lewiston-Auburn from a party.

Four people and the dog died at the scene. The other two people died hours later at Central Maine Medical Center.

Of the young men traveling together, all four had attended Lewiston High School. Athletic Director Jason Fuller knew them all.

“I have a hard time finding what good comes out of this,” Fuller said Tuesday. “Look at the photos. That’s who they were. They touched hundreds of lives.”

Fuller knew Cournoyer, Manley and Bruce the best, since all were athletes.

He described Cournoyer as “very quiet and introspective.” He was shy in school, but friends talk about how outgoing he was with them.

Also quiet in school, Bruce impressed Fuller with his work ethic and heart, working hard at every practice whether he’d be on a bench or on the field for the game.

Manley was the most outgoing of the bunch, Fuller said.

“He had a smile that lit up a room and was so fun-loving,” he said. “I never saw him upset.

“All of the kids were tremendous friends,” he added.

It’s uncertain what they were doing the night of the crash. They had just left a party, Jordan said.

As a matter of course, police tested the two drivers, Cournoyer and Walton, for alcohol.

The tests will take weeks, said Detective Sgt. William Gagne of the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department.

At the time of the crash, Cournoyer had been driving with a suspended license, the result of an operating under the influence conviction on March 2. Only 12 days later, he spent a night in jail after police found him drinking and smoking marijuana, both violations of his bail, according to a police affidavit.

Walton’s driving record showed several speeding tickets, but he had attended a defensive driving course and was driving legally.

If drinking did contribute to the accident, Roy’s sister Jordan hopes other young people will find a lesson.

“I’m disturbed,” she said. “I hope this becomes a learning experience for that whole group.”

It’s little consolation, though.

“Jake’s life was his friends,” she said. “That kid had no enemies.”

Unlike the others, he didn’t graduate from Lewiston High. In his junior year, he transferred to the Franklin Alternative School in Auburn. He left before graduating.

“He was just getting his life together,” Jordan said.

He’d gone to work for his dad, Ronald Roy, who runs a construction company. And he was dating a lot in his spare time.

“All the ladies loved him,” she said. She recalled how he’d carefully dress or arrange his belongings.

“Horrible things always happen to good people,” she said. “I don’t understand it.”

Similar sentiments were heard from the Caron and Walton families.

The couple had few hobbies besides being together, said Mickie Caron, Laura’s aunt. Since the crash, the families had been gathering at each other’s homes to remember Laura and Steven.

Meanwhile, Lewiston High School became a mourning site for the others.

On Sunday, they opened the doors for kids to talk.

“We expected about 40 or 50 kids,” Principal Gus LeBlanc said. “Instead, 200 came.”

Lewiston High School plans to open its doors again on Thursday and Friday, as memorials begin for the former students.

Robert Bruce’s funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at the Bates College Chapel. LeBlanc plans to open the high school from 12:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m.

It will open again on Friday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., before the afternoon wake for Cournoyer.

Counselors and staff will be on hand to talk and listen.

“The problem with these situations is that we search for answers,” LeBlanc said. “Often times, there aren’t answers.”