Melissa Stegner, in green, with her family two days before brother Sean and dad Scott were killed by a drunken driver in 2007

When Melissa Stegner thinks about the days after Christmas in 2007, it’s mostly a blur with a few focused, unavoidable truths.

Her dad, Scott, and big brother, Sean, had dropped her grandmother at home. As father and son headed back to Virginia, a Cadillac Escalade crossed into the southbound lane and struck the Stegners’ Chrysler minivan head-on.

The SUV driver was drunk, a repeat offender.

Her dad and brother died before rescue workers arrived.

“I was totally naive to drunk driving and the dangers of alcohol,” said Melissa, now 17. “I didn’t know how to deal with it. Nobody knew how to deal with it.”

Years later, her story precedes her in the high school hallways. She thinks she’ll always be known as the girl whose family was killed by a drunken driver.

She’d always thought of herself as shy, but the worst moments of her life have become a reason to speak up.