Girl Going To Buy Candy When Hit By Car

A 5-year-old girl who died early Sunday was going to the store to buy Easter candy with $5 from her grandfather when she was hit by a car.

Melissa Taylor of Seattle was hit at 6:25 p.m. Saturday when she and a 6-year-old friend were trying to cross Crestline near Bridgeport in northeast Spokane. She died at 1:30 a.m. Sunday at Holy Family Hospital.

Taylor had arrived in Spokane at 3 p.m. Saturday for a weeklong visit with her mother, Christina Bowers.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Coeur d’Alene Memorial Gardens. Taylor, who moved to Seattle in August with her father, will be buried at Coeur d’Alene Forest Cemetery.

“She’s going to be buried in an Easter dress and bonnet,” Bowers said.

Melissa was enrolled in a gifted program in kindergarten in Seattle, her mother said, adding that she knew three languages - sign language, Vietnamese and English.