Lodi mom asks for acts of kindness to remember daughter killed in crash three years ago

Joshua Jongsma | NorthJersey

Jonine Tolentino seeks the kindness of the world after dealing with great tragedy.

Tolentino, a Lodi resident who previously lived in Bloomfield, lost her daughter Natasha Bellott in 2015. Bellott, 20, was killed in a crash on Interstate 95 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania returning from auditions for "American Idol."

Friday would have marked Bellott's 23rd birthday. Tolentino asked people in her new home of Bergen County and back in Bloomfield to perform a random act of kindness to honor her daughter's memory.

"She was such a good person, that’s what made me think of it," Tolentino said. "I want her honored, I never want her forgotten. Each and every year I will ask people to do it."

Tolentino promoted it in Bloomfield the past two years, and also releases balloons on her daughter's birthday and the anniversary of her death.

"Some people pay for someone’s lunch, bought coffee," she said. "I just would like them to do anything, whether it’s to help someone cross the street or just give a kind word to someone."

A Belleville driver was found liable and sentenced to probation in 2016 for Bellott's death.

After seeing Tolentino's request, Tami Mandelbaum of Fair Lawn said she plans to pick up litter at a local park.

"I did it this last week at Brookside Park in Westwood to teach my kids to take care of our Mother Earth," Mandelbaum said. "It would be even more meaningful to do this in Natasha’s name, and in the name of our Mother Earth and to honor her mother Jonine."

Cynthia Burns of Mahwah said she will try to take advantage of opportunities for common courtesy. Some examples she listed would be letting someone go in front of her in line at the supermarket, or helping someone carrying groceries in need.

"As a mother I can’t begin to imagine the pain," Burns said of the loss of Tolentino's daughter. "It’s an upbeat, positive way to honor her daughter."

Bellott had two older sisters and a younger brother. She always loved music, her mother said, which helped inspire her to try out for "American Idol." Justin Bieber was Bellott's favorite artist, and the two even resembled each other at times, Tolentino said.

Bellott worked in Montclair, a known hangout of Bieber's, and always wanted to meet him.

"She got me up at 12:30 [a.m.] one time because he was at Clifton Commons and we were the only fans there," Tolentino said. "We sat there for like two hours. She wrote him a letter. I have a beautiful letter she had written to him begging to meet him."

Unfortunately Bellott never got to meet her music idol.

Bellott also tried to perform random acts of kindness herself. Tolentino recalled a time when her daughter witnessed a car accident in Kearny and then drove some of the victims to Mountainside Hospital in Montclair herself.

"She stopped everything she was doing just to help somebody," Tolentino said. "She had a heart of gold."

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Email: jongsma@northjersey.com