Only the good die young

by Nancy Meck
(Crozet, Virginia USA)

He would have been 30 years old this year, but the year was 2004 and he was just started working at the Charlottesville Ice Park, which is indoors, about 10 days before. So when you go from working a job in the evening to working a job in the afternoon, your body is not adjusted to all that. He was so tired all the time. He was hanging with someone that my husband and I didn't like, but he was working with this person.

It was on September 25, 2004 and he called my husband and asked him where the nearest ABC store was. My husband did tell him. He bought a bottle and I don't know what he did with it at first. After work the person that he was with decided that they should go and play some pool. They did drink a little bit while they were there. David wanted to go home after that, because him and his fiancee were in the midst of wedding plans and he wanted to go home and be with her, but this person said that why don't we go to another bar that will be opened late, but you have to bring your own.

They got there after 1 am. He sat there and drank the whole night until 5 am. He was so drunk that the other person would not call a cab or call his parents or his fiancee to come and get him. So he got in his car and drove down the road to the interstate. The other person said to us that he happened to look back and see him swerve back and forth. When he got there he did not know that he got off on the on-ramp. He drove going the wrong direction and there a cop driving that direction and turned around and tried to stop him by shooting at his tires. He said that David was going about 80 mph.

He spun up ahead and by the time the cop caught up with him it was too late. He got off the off ramp at the Shadwell exit and he hit the guard rail and was killed instantly. The car also burst into flames and he was burned 70% of his body. They could not get him out because of the way his body was in the car. He died on September 26, 2004 and we buried him on October 9, 2004. It took the Medical Examiner a week and a half to recognize him. My whole world turned upside down. I wish he was here. He was one of five boys. Thank you for this. He was beautiful, intelligent person whom everyone loved even his family. He wore tye die shirts and sandals.