Pedro Vasquez had always wanted a daughter. And after having three boys in a row, he and wife Laura Canchola finally welcomed Aubrey, now 5 years old.

“He always wanted a girl and then the girl didn’t come until the fourth child,” Canchola said with a laugh. “At least he got his girl.”

In August, less than two weeks before his 28th birthday, Vasquez died of a fentanyl overdose. Canchola said she struggled with telling her children the news.

“At first they thought that I was playing around, and then they all got serious,” she said. “This was an eye-opener. At his casket I told them, ‘Look, this can happen to you guys. It happened to your father. You guys have to understand.’”

As Christmas and New Year’s Day approached, Canchola, 28, thought of the absence that would dominate holidays, birthdays and special events in the future. She wonders who will dance with Aubrey at her quinceanera.

“One day I’m okay and then the other I’m mopping ... or going to the store and seeing something he liked, I just break down crying,” she said. “There’s not a day that I do not cry.”

Now a single mother of four, Canchola is trying to navigate the unexpected loss — for herself and her children.

“I have the support of my mom and dad but it’s not easy,” she said.

This year, all four kids have been hoping for bikes or scooters so they could ride around their Homestead neighborhood and in the park that’s next to their house.

‘He was always smiling’

When they were 16, Canchola and Vasquez had their first child, Pedro, now 11. After that they had Jayden, 9, Mario, 8, and Aubrey, who just started kindergarten.

“Through all my pregnancies, he was there,” Canchola said.

Vasquez was an underwater pipe-layer for a South Florida engineering company, Canchola said. He was a talented swimmer and loved to fish in canals, sometimes traveling to Flamingo in Everglades National Park. When he wasn’t working or fishing, he would play football and soccer with the kids, she said.

“He was a really good dad,” Canchola said. “Anything they needed, he was there.”

Michelle Rodriguez had known Vasquez since he was a boy, when he first began attending the Redland Christian Migrant Association, where she is center coordinator of the agency’s Everglades II Child Development Center.

“I saw him grow up. And then he comes to me with her and a child and I’m like, ‘what?’” Rodriguez said with a laugh. “No matter what, he was always smiling.”

Rodriguez nominated Canchola for help from Wish Book through the agency. The two met about 11 years ago when Canchola’s first son was a baby.

“I would tell her that, ‘I see you as a daughter that I never had,’” Rodriguez said. “When I talk to you, please don’t take it wrong or offensive. Don’t think I’m getting after you. I’m just letting you know, by my experience, some of the things you can avoid.”

In her role as center coordinator, Rodriguez regularly interacts with the families who attend.

When describing her interactions with Vasquez and Canchola, she said the young couple was always willing to listen.

“I always had this special bond with her and her husband, Pedro, because they would listen,” she said. “There’s parents that you try to talk to and they won’t listen to you. And they didn’t. They sat there, they wanted the help, they wanted that advice.”

Rodriguez last saw Vasquez a few weeks before his death.

“I was in shock,” she said. “And it hurt me a lot because I also saw him as a son.”

After his passing, Rodriguez offered to help watch Canchola’s children while she was working at the nearby Winn-Dixie grocery store. A few times since then, Jayden, the second-oldest son, has shown up to Rodriguez’s center just to hug her and say hi — something he hadn’t done previously.

Grant a wish. Make a difference.

How to help: Wish Book is trying to help this family and hundreds of others in need this year. To donate, pay securely at MiamiHerald.com/wishbook.

Canchola said she has seen the grief affect her children, and that it can be difficult for them to express their feelings.

To spend quality time together and feel some sense of normalcy, she said, the family likes to hang out in the living room, turn on a movie and order pizza.

“I just want for things to fall into place,” Canchola said. “I know we’re never going to be 100% after all of this, but I just want to be good and healthy for my kids and just keep living life.”

HOW TO HELP

To help this Wish Book nominee and the more than 100 other nominees who are in need this year:

• To donate, use the coupon found in the newspaper or pay securely online through www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook

• For more information, call 305-376-2906 or emailWishbook@MiamiHerald.com

• The most requested items are often laptops and tablets for school, furniture, and accessible vans

• Read all Wish Book stories on www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook