DIXFIELD – From her home here, Angela Calden visited her MySpace site Wednesday afternoon, reviewing pages of comments and prayers proffered by friends and relatives.

For Calden, 33, and her brother Jason Wing, 26, of Fort Rucker, Ala., their hometown of Peru is where the life of their beloved “Sissy” – Christine Sterry, 31 – abruptly ended.

Sterry had moved back to their parents’ Peru home in October from Howland. She was killed in a car wreck on Route 108 about 7:40 a.m. on Feb. 9, along with another Peru resident, 48-year-old Carl Grant.

Grant had just left home in his Jeep Cherokee, while Sterry, driving her Ford Windstar van, was returning home after working the night shift at Jarden’s Corp., a manufacturing plant in East Wilton.

Both were only a mile from their homes when state police said Sterry’s van crossed the centerline and collided with Grant’s Jeep. Both died instantly.

Results of his investigation may be released next week, said Trooper Jason Wing on Wednesday. He’s not related to the family.

The deaths of Sterry and Grant affect hundreds of interconnected people in Peru, Dixfield, Maine and the eastern half of America. The tragedy also prompted a huge outpouring of love and support from across the region.

“All of the events of that week are still so vivid, yet so blurred, as well,” Calden said. “But, one thing that became, once again, so very clear to me is the connection the residents of this area have with one another.”

That connection brought together families and relatives of both Sterry and Grant, revealing just how closely their lives were intertwined.

Sterry was one of 18 grandchildren who have 36 aunts and uncles.

Calden’s first hint of the love came when she arrived at the crash scene while it was still being investigated.

Six of her mother Mary Lou (Dolloff) Wing’s eight siblings were already there. Two others live out of state.

“They had all formed a circle of love and support around my mother before my father or myself were brought there from work,” said Calden, a teller at Franklin Savings Bank in Rumford. “My mom went to the accident scene not knowing her daughter was involved.”

Calden’s father, Danny Wing, a SAD 21 director, is a maintenance worker at NewPage Corp., the paper mill in nearby Rumford.

When Calden arrived, her mother and her mother’s siblings were inside Tim and Pauline Hebert’s home, the house nearest to the wreck. The Heberts are the parents of Calden’s brother’s wife, Amanda Wing.

“Pauline welcomed us like we were their own,” Calden said.

Tim Hebert spent most of that day on the phone with Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office trying to get his son-in-law Jason Wing, a military policeman, home from Alabama. He arrived by midnight.

“I think the irony of the situation was that (the crash) happened so close to the Heberts’ home and the family gathered there and were able to see the crash site, and they knew they couldn’t do anything for (Christine), so they helped support each other and tried to get through the day,” Calden’s cousin Cherri Crockett of Bethel said.

Crockett is the daughter of Oxford County Sheriff’s Sgt. Timothy Holland and Mary Lou Wing’s sister, Nancy Nemethy of Peru. Holland was also helping at the accident scene.

Calden said she later learned that Sterry’s cousin, Clint Dolloff, the SAD 21 school bus driver who was traveling behind Grant and braked to avoid the wreck, didn’t realize Sterry was involved until later that night.

Dolloff positioned his bus full of students, blocking the accident scene from view of children on two buses behind him. He also reported it.

Carl Grant’s mother Betty told Mary-Lou Wing, Calden’s grandmother, that if her son hadn’t pulled out when he did – ahead of Clint Dolloff’s bus – Sterry would likely have collided with the bus.

Calden said she was told by police that sunlight may have blinded Sterry.

Another Sterry cousin, Peru firefighter John Dolloff, who lives across from the Grant’s, detoured traffic around the scene for more than five hours, despite knowing who was involved.

Calden and Nemethy picked up Sterry’s three children at SAD 21’s elementary and middle schools.

On the morning of Feb. 10, members of the Grant family visited Danny and Mary Lou Wing’s home to express condolences while Calden and her brother made arrangements for Sterry at Wiles Funeral Home in Dixfield. That afternoon, the Wings went to the Grants’ home and shared condolences.

Guidance counselors and social workers were available at SAD 21’s three schools. At one school, Calden said a staff worker told her “a staggering amount of children” had ties to both sides and were affected by the tragedy.

Calden’s son played football at Dirigo High School with Grant’s nephew.

Later that night, Crockett and Jeffrey Dolloff erected two white crosses – one for Sterry, the other for Grant – side by side behind the guardrail at the crash site and topped both with floral wreathes. More people stopped and left flowers.

“Later that week, we would attend each other’s services. We had all lost loved ones and that was all that mattered,” Calden said.

Among the 500 who attended Sterry’s service on Feb. 12 in Dixfield were five carloads of people from Howland.

Before returning to Peru last fall, Sterry worked at the Bangor Raceway and lived in Howland for five years. Ninety people attended a memorial service for Sterry on Feb. 11 in Howland.

Many who went to Sterry’s service also attended Grant’s service on Feb. 13 in Dixfield.

That’s why Calden on Wednesday urged people to “appreciate everyone and appreciate this area where we all live. Everyone is who they are for a reason. You never know when you might lose them. What will your last words be? Make them kind, please.”