Martha Collins, a family friend, and Connor Bordeaux hold photos Monday of Bordeaux’s twin brothers who were killed in a hit-and-run crash in July. Collins and Connor, 6, stand on a new ramp at Collins’ home that was built by volunteers from Central Church of Augusta and China for the boys’ mother, Mollie Egold, who was injured in the accident and will return home from the hospital this week. (Anna Chadwick/Staff Photographer)

The mother of twin boys killed in Albion in July after being struck by a hit-and-run driver is scheduled to return home Tuesday after nearly two months in the hospital and rehabilitation care.

Mollie Egold, who will turn 34 on Wednesday, is doing much better but the family is struggling with the tragic loss of her sons, Bradley and Noah Bordeaux, according to Martha Collins, a family friend with whom Egold and her other son, 6-year-old Connor Bordeaux, live.

“This whole thing is just a brutal nightmare — it really is,” Collins, 73, said Monday.

Benjamin Lancaster, 44, was arrested July 14 and charged with manslaughter in connection with the crash, which occurred in the area of 60 Hussey Road in Albion as Egold was pulling her 2 ½-year-old twins, Bradley and Noah, toward town in a wagon stroller. A second manslaughter charge was added on July 17.

Lancaster was also charged with one Class B count of aggravated criminal operating under the influence, two Class C counts of aggravated criminal operating under the influence, and three Class C counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury or death. All charges are felony-level offenses.

Bradley died at the scene and Noah was taken by LifeFlight to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he died four days later. Egold was flown to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she underwent surgeries and later was moved to Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield, where she underwent rehabilitation, Collins said.

Egold’s injuries were substantial. Collins said both her hips were broken, as was one leg. A large piece of glass was embedded in her back at the base of her spine, and bones in her hand were also broken.

“It was horrible,” Collins said.

The tragedy is not the first for the family. In 2017, Egold and her then 5-year-old son, William Egold, were canoeing in a Vassalboro stream when the canoe capsized. While both were wearing life jackets, William was held under water by debris and drowned.

Collins said Egold is healing physically, but the pain of her losses is raw.

“Emotionally, the best I can say is, she is doing as well as can be expected. It’s been a nightmare for all of us. She’s had emotional loss of the children plus the injuries, but she’s held up. Connor is really struggling. I don’t know how to describe it. We both say, ‘How do you wrap your head around what happened?’”

The twins’ wake and funeral were held Aug. 1 and 2, respectively in Augusta. Egold was taken by ambulance on a stretcher to attend both, Collins said.

THE FATEFUL DAY

On July 11, Egold placed her two boys in the wagon, strapped them in and headed down Hussey Road to go to 202 General in Albion where she worked part-time as a cashier, Collins said. They had done the 15- to 20-minute trip many times before and the boys, especially Bradley, loved it.

“This was the one time she did not have Connor in the stroller,” Collins said. “Connor had just reached the weight where he was too heavy for it. She told him no, he couldn’t go with her. He came in to me crying because he wanted to go. I said, go get in the car and I will drive you down.”

A few feet down the road, Collins met up with Egold and the boys and teased her a little about the fact that she and Connor would arrive at the store ahead of them. Bradley wanted to get out of the wagon to go in the car but then changed his mind; otherwise, Connor would likely have switched places with him and gone into the wagon, she said.

“These are the things that are just blowing my mind,” she said, adding that she told Egold and the twins that she would see them at the store.

Collins and Connor were on their way back from the store and had turned onto Hussey Road, where they saw people walking around up the road, she said. Connor said he saw his mother, but Collins assured him she wouldn’t be walking in the road.

“Then we drove up at the scene and both of us see all of them spread across the lawn,” Collins said. “It was shock, the last thing in the world we expected to see. It plays over and over in my head.”

People were tending to Egold, who had been thrown into a mailbox but was conscious and in pain. Among those rendering aid was Rocky Fuller, who had come around his house and discovered the family on his front lawn. A motorcyclist who stopped at the scene was doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Bradley.

“I ran to Noah,” Collins recalled. “Noah knew me. He saw me. He followed me with his eyes. It is very emotional.”

Her voice breaking, Collins said she saw someone place a blanket over Bradley and knew he had died. A couple who live nearby took Connor in while she stayed with Noah at the hospital, refusing to leave his side.

After four days, she said, Noah was taken off life support.

A COMMUNITY RALLIES

The Albion community has rallied around the family, with people donating funds online, as well as through Albion Christian Church, P.O. Box 205, Albion, ME 04910, and placing “accident family” on the memo line of checks.

“Financially, we don’t know what the bills are going to be,” Collins said. “It’s a lot to get through.”

Volunteers from the Central Church of Augusta and China built a new porch and ramp on the family’s trailer, , Collins said.

“Blessings have showered down on us through this whole thing,” she said. “People have been coming out of the woodwork. Two churches bring meals to Connor and I. We’ve had meals delivered almost every day. Rocky and his wife have become friends.”

Collins said hospital staff members have been supportive and compassionate. At Sebasticook Valley, where Egold has spent the last month in rehab, workers are protective, declining Monday to connect her to a reporter via phone.

Egold will return home Tuesday, a day before her 34th birthday — Connor’s birthday was Aug. 5 and Collins’ was Aug. 13. Collins said she and Connor are looking forward to having her back.

“As of yesterday, she was walking under her own power,” she said.

Once together and at home, the three will talk, wonder about all the “what ifs” and continue to try to make sense of it all, Collins said.

“Connor has so many questions he’s constantly asking,” she said. “The latest is, he’s telling everybody he has three brothers in heaven. I don’t know how long this is going to go on. He asks questions, I let him talk. He asks why, why. I say, ‘Because this is what God wants. He wants them in heaven with him.’ We’re all trying to figure this out.”