In death, teacher helps others live

Candace Tift may have saved three lives Friday.

A giver and a teacher for most of her 31 years, Tift helped give life to three people when her organs were donated just two days after the young mother was hit while riding her bicycle on a Newport Beach sidewalk. Tift died of her injuries Thursday.

“She was amazing — not only as a daughter, but just as a human being,” Tift’s mother, Mary Logan, said.

A fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Eastbluff Elementary in Newport Beach, Tift shared her love of learning with her students. She was positive, loving and caring — traits that blossomed when she was with Owen, her 15-month-old son, Logan said.

“She was meant to be a mom,” Logan said.

Tift spent as much time as she could with Owen. Whether going to Disneyland or the library, every day they had a special activity they would do together, Logan said.

“They were always on the go,” Logan said.

Tift was riding her beach cruiser bicycle on a sidewalk on West Coast Highway on Wednesday evening when a car veered onto the curb and hit her. Her cocker spaniel, Dudley, was on a leash running alongside the bike when the accident happened. The dog was unharmed.

The driver of the car, Janene Kathleen Johns of Irvine, 52, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

“I think she could have helped so many lives,” Logan said of her daughter. “Someone tragically destroyed many lives that one minute.”

Logan said her daughter was strongly against people driving under the influence.

“Anybody that ever had a drink, she would not let them drive,” Logan said.

While Tift was in the hospital after the accident, family and friends came to say goodbye, Logan said.

“I don’t know if she heard us, but we did,” Logan said.

Tift grew up in Huntington Beach with two sisters and one younger brother. She went to Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, then moved on to Orange Coast College and UCLA, where she earned her teaching credentials.

Friends matched her up with Wade Tift, a Newport-Mesa local whom she married in 2003.

“Something magical happened the day they were married,” Logan said.

“They were wonderful apart, but together they created this wonderful family.”

Standing inside her daughter’s bedroom Friday, Logan said she was surrounded by all the books — about being a better mother, a better person — that Tift loved to read.

“She was always trying to better herself to be the best she could,” Logan said.

A love of reading contributed to Tift’s lifelong dream of becoming a teacher, her mother said.

As a young girl, Tift played teacher with the neighborhood kids, stamping books and instructing her peers.

Years later her passion for teaching was evident even to those who knew her only for a few minutes.

“She was phenomenal. You could just tell the kids respected her,” said Newport Beach Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz, who met Tift in May 2006 while teaching a fire-safety course in Tift’s Eastbluff classroom.

The family has not yet planned a memorial service.