BALTIMORE COUNTY — A Baltimore family is remembering their son, a U.S. Air Force airman who was killed in a hit-and-run accident last year, as Memorial Day approaches.

On May 8, 2023, Airman Makai Cummings, 20, was killed in a hit-and-run on a Virginia highway. He was changing a tire, trying to make it back to his Air Force base in North Carolina.

"At the end of the day, the thing that I want most can't happen," said Rotina Lacy, Makai's mother.

"He would say I'm getting on the road and I would say you know how to call we love you… and that's the last thing I said to him," Lacy said.

Cummings was laid to rest at the Circle of the Immortals.

A proud alum of Baltimore City College, Cummings was a champion lacrosse player, a leader, and a standout student. He was known for being funny, charismatic, sensitive — and driven to serve.

"He went in at 18 and he talked about what the Air Force stood for and talked about integrity and brotherhood, serving his country and what that meant," said Lacy.

After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, joining the 335th Fighter Generation Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. His job was as a skilled journeyman who worked on electronic systems for F-15 fighter jets.

"Wow my baby and he was getting award from those things," Lacy said.

But off the base, he was just Makai. The heart of the Lacy family. Their jokester. Their protector. Their light.

"His absence is felt really when we're all together so that makes it hard," said Lacy.

Rotina chokes up thinking about him — the sound of his laugh, his love for family, and the future he never got to see.

"It's been like, really a challenge of continuing on and celebrating the things you're supposed to celebrate but being sad at the sad time because he's not here to celebrate with us," she said.

While his case remains unsolved, the Lacy family is taking it one day at a time. Still looking for answers — but holding onto the memories that keep Makai's spirit alive.

"Our family is so important to us… this is us," said Lacy.

Memorial Day isn't just about those lost in combat — it's about remembering all who wore the uniform who never made it home.

"When your thought process was praying that he don't go away, and get hurt..for it happen right here… that's like… yea," said Carlos Lacy, Makai Cummings' father.

For some families, like the Lacys, the loss came not from war but from the world back home. And still, the sacrifice is just as deep.

"I look at people so differently who are military spouses, military children, they are sacrificing so much," said Lacy.

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