Family members have described Bessie Manning as a witty, active woman. Even as her mind and body started to fail in recent years, she remained at the center of her family life.
Sunday evening, they are still trying to come to terms with the way in which she was lost.
One of 23 grandchildren, Melvin Manning is still in shock, as he tries to process how a reckless driver would leave his 85-year-old grandmother, Manning, in the street after hitting her early Sunday morning.
"As I looked at her when she was on the hospital bed, I just couldn't believe someone would do this to somebody that's old," Manning said. "People just don't respect life anymore."
According to police, Manning was struck around 3:30 Sunday morning, on the 5600 block of West Division.
Witnesses say the driver fled westbound on Division, but no vehicle description is available. Manning was rushed to Mt. Sinai in critical condition where she later died.
"She was a classy person to be around," her grandson said. "You never saw another woman like her, I can say this."
As to what Bessie Manning was doing out so early, her grandson said in recent years she showed signs of dementia. She and her sister had only recently moved into the Senior Suites of Austin about a mile and a half away from where the hit-and-run happened.
The family placed alarms on their apartment door to alert them if she wandered out and had in fact, already called police even before finding out about the accident.
"I'd like to ask God to forgive those people and if they would like to have a conscience ask them to bring themselves forward to deal with this," Melvin Manning said.
Police have not made any arrests and they say they don't have a reliable description of the vehicle.
They and the family are asking anyone who may have seen something to please come forward.
