HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — "In my brain, I know that she's gone, but it don't feel like it in my heart. It feels like she's still here," Luna Winstead's grandmother Becky Plows said.
She got the worst news a family member could get -- that her grandchild was gone.
"I got a text that said, 'Call me, it's real important. It's about Luna,' and then they texted again, 'She's been hit by a car,'" Plows said.
The Houston County Sheriff's Office says 34-year-old Stephanie Livingston of Warner Robins was driving a 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe northbound on Highway 247, when Winstead walked into the roadway and was struck Saturday night.
It's not only a dark road to be on, but the speed limit goes up to 45 miles per hour in the area.
"It's not a 35-mile an hour speed limit there, so that just broke my heart when I heard that," Winstead's special education teacher Valerie Barnwell said.
She says they had a special bond. "She just had the most amazing smile and laugh and she just lit up every room she was in. You loved Luna if you knew Luna, and everyone at Hilltop loved Luna, and it's a loss -- it really is a great loss for us," Barnwell said.
"She was non-verbal autistic, but she would still get her point across. She would let you know what she wanted. She was really awesome. She was the sweetest, loving child," Plows said.
"I really can't imagine what that family is going through. Luna was just the light in everybody's life," Barnwell said.
"She was just a different child. You'd never meet another child like her," Plows said.
Winstead was visiting other family members at the time of the accident.
She would've been in 2nd grade at Hilltop Elementary this upcoming school year.