The group gets together to remember Kathleen's son, Eric Quesada, who was killed in a car crash Thanksgiving week at the age of 18. They tell stories about Eric, read cards that Kathleen has received from both those who knew and did not know Eric, and laugh.

"We dwell more on the fact that we knew him than the fact that he's gone," says friend Mike Benassi, 19. "It's all good times here."

"I wake up in the morning and I'm really sad and I cry and I cry and I cry," Kathleen says, but then the kids come over. "I'm happy—a bittersweet happy, but it's good."

Eric—who was nicknamed "Q" or "Quesadilla" and had the rap moniker of "Eye-Q"—loved Bob Marley and the Counting Crows and recently fell in love with hip-hop music.

His friends blare that music, along with Eric's own raps, through Kathleen's loudspeakers. They also watch video footage filmed and spliced together by friend Andrew Quillin. Those segments show Eric, as always, hamming for the camera with silly facial expressions; making fun of his friends and Los Gatos High School teachers; and speaking in falsetto voices or with fake accents.

"He thought he was funny. He really liked himself," Kathleen says.

And, by all accounts, everyone else "really liked" him, too.

"He was just one of those people who, no matter who you were, you loved him," Mike says.

At a Dec. 3 memorial service, friends and acquaintances testified on Eric's impact on their lives.

One girl admitted she did not know Eric well but said, "Even if we talked for a short time, it was a happy moment."

Los Gatos High School teacher Kurt Kroesche, who was Eric's favorite instructor, said, "As a teacher, he honored me. And he made me proud. He made me proud to be a teacher."

As a Daves Avenue student, Eric went to Oaktree after-school care and "stood out," said an Oaktree staff member. "Never in my life did I dream, when I heard the sirens on the night of Nov. 26, that it could be one of those kids so important to me."

Many of Eric's family members—from both his mother's and father's sides—were in the crowd that packed the First Baptist Community Church, as were representatives from school staff and members of the Los Gatos­Monte Sereno Police Department. Los Gatos High School students, who filled the audience, honored their classmate through songs, letters and poems.

"It's mind-blowing. These teenagers are so articulate and passionate and are directing it toward our family," Kathleen says.

Kathleen says her son did, indeed, live life to the fullest, constantly affirmed others and knew what was truly important.

"He was a charmer," Kathleen says. Eric could get anything he wanted, "but he was very giving and he was a compassionate person." Kathleen received a letter about a girl who was disliked by all of her peers, and "Eric was the only one in the entire school who was nice to her, ever."

Friends paint a picture of a person who was always asking to borrow money and never paid anyone back but was generous with others.

Mike recalls how Eric would ask for a few dollars and then turn around and offer to help someone pay for their lunch. "We're like, 'He didn't give you money, he gave you our money,' " Mike says, laughingly.

Friend Pat Lynch adds that Eric took one of the mentally handicapped students at Los Gatos High out for lunch regularly.

"He really understood life and what life was all about," says close friend Jen Hoyt.

From an early age, Eric appreciated fun and laughter and "didn't have any fear of dying or anything," Kathleen says. And although Eric had his share of problems, he realized that much of it was typical "high school stuff" and talked about his feelings with his mother and with his friends.

Although Eric belonged to a clique at school, he unhesitatingly took his own path, hanging out with different people and experimenting with his appearance. Eric changed his hairstyle all the time and, on occasion, wore pajama pants and slippers to school when he felt like it.

According to Mike, one of Eric's recent mottos was, "If you're going to party, party hard, but party safe so you can live to party another day."

Kathleen says, however, "Right now, I feel that kids that are 16 and 17 don't need to party hard." Kathleen thinks Eric's saying that defines who he was is "Love life. Live life."

"He had a core that was pure and kind but a little sassy," Kathleen says. Eric liked to make fun of others in a way that wasn't hurtful, once telling his stepfather that he "threw like a girl," and had a disdain for convention, sometimes ignoring rules and classes that he felt were unimportant.

"Eric was spontaneous. He followed his heart," Kathleen says.

Eric Michael Quesada was born on Nov. 19, 1984, to Kathleen, a Los Gatos native, and Jerold Quesada, a Saratoga High School graduate. Even as a baby, "he was magical. He was cute and smiley and happy," Kathleen says.

When Eric was 2 years old, his parents divorced. Although Kathleen has remained in Los Gatos and Jerold moved to San Anselmo last year, Kathleen says Eric saw his father every weekend. "He loved his dad very much," Kathleen says.

Eric was equally close to his mother. "He told everyone how much he loved her," Jen says.

Kathleen says her son told her almost everything. "I would almost tell him, 'You know, there are some things parents don't want to know,' " Kathleen says.

As a teenager, Eric immersed himself first in skateboarding, which he excelled at, but his interest in music took over the last few years of his life. Along with his best friend, Dave Kleinschmidt, Eric made hip-hop songs, practiced freestyle rap and made a professional-sounding record with band Emcee Squared.

When Eric was 16, Kathleen met and married Karl Wolski. Mike says Eric initially expressed some fear about living with a father figure, but soon after, Eric told Mike, "This is awesome."

"It was the best year of our life," Kathleen says. The threesome had Tuesday movie nights and regularly played badminton, basketball or football out in front of their Alpine Avenue house.

And then, three months ago, baby Grace arrived, changing Eric's plans for the future. He had originally wanted to go to college in Southern California, but then he decided to aim for UC-Santa Cruz or West Valley College so he could help take care of Grace. Eric wanted to earn a liberal arts degree "and then become a rock star and make lots of money and buy us a house, buy his grandma a house," Kathleen says.

Still, Eric remained a "mama's boy." Whenever Eric was at a party and his driver had had too much to drink, he would call his mother or a friend for a ride home. The two had discussed his staying out of trouble, especially now that he was 18 and was no longer a minor.

So that's why it's such a surprise to his friends that Eric was in a car driven by a juvenile now charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after a Nov. 26 high school party.

"All I can say is, Eric must have not known that the driver was drunk," Jen says, since she had, on more than one occasion, picked Eric up from parties.

The Chevrolet Tahoe crashed into a utility pole on Hicks Road, causing serious injury to Eric and Kellin Dunne; the driver and other passenger escaped with minor injuries.

Eric was declared brain-dead on Thanksgiving Day, and life support was turned off the day after. Immediately, his organs were donated: his heart given to a 27-year-old, his liver to a 21-year-old, and his lungs and kidneys and pancreas to others.

The impacts of Eric's death have been instantaneous. A group of his friends have gotten tattoos—some of "Star Wars," Eric's favorite movie—while others have joined together to form the Passion in Music Foundation.

"The idea is based on Grace. She's going to grow up and know how amazing her brother was and how many lives he touched with his music," Pat says. "It's music with a message, and it's a message of peace."

The organizers of the foundation hope to create CDs, starting out with the underground Los Gatos hip-hop scene, and then spreading to the rest of the Bay Area and eventually statewide. The money earned with the CDs will be used as scholarship funds for Los Gatos High School students.

A handful of Eric's friends hope to speak at other high schools about Passion in Music and about not drinking and driving. Mike and Jen hope that speaking from personal experience will affect other kids to a greater degree than they would be being lectured to by adults.

"I think there needs to be more monitoring of kids. I think there needs to be more monitoring of places that sell alcohol," Kathleen says.

"It's easier to get alcohol than a glass of water at some places in this town," Mike interjects.

Photograph courtesy of Kathleen Wolski Kathleen Wolski's favorite recent picture of her son, Eric Quesada, was this one.

The accident has caused local law enforcement, the Los Gatos High School administration and the organization Community Against Substance Abuse to take a closer look at how their prevention efforts are going.

The biggest lesson from Eric's life, however, is simple.

"Just be kind. He was kind to people, and it changed people's lives," Kathleen says.