Democracy Dies in Darkness
Maryland

After Key Bridge tragedy, a widow’s pain and unexpected blessings

María del Carmen Castellón Luna, whose husband Miguel Luna died in the Key Bridge collapse, speaks for the first time about how the tragedy affected her life.

8 min
María del Carmen Castellón Luna, the widow of Miguel Luna, a worker who died when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed, visits Luna’s grave in Glen Burnie, Md., on Sunday. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post/for The Washington Post)
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Since that cold March morning, when María del Carmen Castellón Luna learned her husband was among those who died in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, her grief has been eased by unexpected warmth.

Much of what has happened during the past six months might have seemed like a blessing, she said, if it had all happened for a different reason.

Family members she had not seen in decades visited from El Salvador, getting to witness the life she and Miguel Luna had built in suburban Maryland. Strangers donated to help with the mortgage on their house, and elected officials, even President Joe Biden, gave her hugs or flags and called her husband a “hero.”

Most significantly, the federal government initiated immigration proceedings for Castellón, offering her a foothold in the country she had called home since 2003. It was something she had long dreamed of, just never like this — leaving her so heartbroken that she had waited until now, six months later, to speak up about it publicly.

“It’s joy, and it’s pain at the same time,” Castellón said tearfully in Spanish during an interview with The Washington Post. “Every time I get a piece of good news, I think about how I wish I would have gotten it earlier. To be able to share it with him.”

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