Getting to know Kaitlin Pierce meant you had a new buddy.

“She was like pals with everyone,” said cousin Brittany Brown of Gainesville, recalling the 26-year-old Gainesville mother of two young children.

Brown described Pierce as someone who “would do anything for anybody” and “the most highly energetic person you’ll ever be around.”

Pierce “was a great, amazing mother who loved her kids and her husband more than she loved herself,” Brown said.

Today, Brown and other loved ones, as well as friends, are mourning Pierce’s death after a late Saturday night one-vehicle accident off Yellow Creek Road in North Hall County.

Pierce was traveling north on Yellow Creek, which juts off Thompson Bridge Road/Ga. 60 in Murrayville, at the time of the 11:30 p.m. wreck, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Pierce was going around a curve near Fitts Drive when her SUV went off the shoulder of the road and struck a mailbox, the GSP said.

The vehicle continued to travel north on the east shoulder and crossed a private driveway. It then went down an embankment and struck a tree.

The vehicle then spun around and came to rest on the east shoulder facing east.

Pierce was pronounced dead at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, according to the GSP.

The crash report indicates no contributing factors in the wreck; drug and alcohol tests are pending.

Funeral services are set for 3 p.m. Tuesday at Memorial Park North Riverside Chapel in Gainesville, with burial to follow at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Pierce, who was born in Germany, was survived by her husband, Brad, and 1-year-old son, Ryland, and 6-year-old daughter, Anslee.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to Anslee and Ryland’s educational fund.

Pierce’s death also had impact beyond family members.

“Kaitlin had a real bubbly type of personality,” said Craig Tankersley, president of Freedom Trans USA in Gainesville, where she used to work. “She never met a stranger.”

He heard about the wreck Sunday morning from Pierce’s twin sister, Kirsten.

“It was shocking,” Tankersley said.

Recently, Pierce was taking care of Brown’s ailing grandfather. Brown said her grandparents “had a large hand” in raising Kaitlin, so her death hit them especially hard.

“They’ve lost a daughter,” Brown said.