Porter-Gaud community mourns teen, mother

Students at the Porter-Gaud School began the morning Tuesday with an assembly full of prayer and reflection for a ninth-grade student and her mother who died in a crash on Interstate 26.

The Monday afternoon wreck killed Christina Akabidavis, 42, and one of her 15-year-old twin daughters, Cushire Akabidavis. Twin sister Rishire Akabidavis was recovering at Medical University Hospital Tuesday morning with a broken leg, Porter-Gaud Headmaster Christian Proctor said. Both twins attended the school.

"They were just bright, shining people," Proctor said. "We lost two valuable members of our community. Cushire and her sister (are) phenomenal people, and their mother, Christina, was always here, very active on campus."

Authorities said the accident happened around 3:10 p.m. while Cushire was driving east in front of the rest area near College Park Road. The twins had turned 15 on Saturday, the age when one can get a learner's permit in South Carolina.

A prayer vigil in the Porter-Gaud library Monday night drew more than 100 students, Proctor said. Later, 30-40 ninth-grade students went to the headmaster's house on campus. At 8 a.m. Tuesday, upper-school students headed straight to an assembly to remember their classmate and her mother.

Both girls were strong students at the private school with ties to the Episcopal Church. They consistently made the honor roll and were volunteer tutors, Proctor said. The headmaster remembered sitting next to their mother at boys' basketball games and being enchanted by her accent from West Africa, where she was originally from.

Lisa Miller lives next door to the Akabidavis' house in The Lakes subdivision of North Charleston. The twins often rode bicycles through the area and would offer to walk Miller's two cocker spaniels.

"They were just phenomenal girls," Miller said. "Smart, as nice as you could be, polite young ladies. Every mother's dream daughter, and she had two of them."