Tragedies posted 10/19/2008 6:39:56 PM | 1 kudo what's this?     report abuse tagged: death, youth, sadness

kywonder

The phone was ringing. I rushed to answer it, not knowing that something horrendous had just happened. I had been cleaning the house and getting ready to go visit my grandfather in another state. My mom, and a sister had taken their vacation and had come to spend it with grandpa and help him clean his house. I was trying to hurry so I could leave and go be with them. After all, grandpa and I lived in different states and it was rare that mom, my sister, and I were all together at the same time, so I was anxious to leave to go see them and grandpa.

"Sherry!" It was my sister and I could tell that something was not right. She was in a state of shock. Just the way she said my name sent chills running down my spine.

'Diane, what is wrong?"

"Sherry, please come and get me!" She was crying hysterically.

"Diane! What is wrong?' I asked her again as my heart began to pound in my chest. "Is mom ok?" Is grandpa ok?'

"Sherry, can you come and get me? Bobby Wayne is dead!"

Oh God! How my mind was racing. Knowing in my heart the answer before I ask the question, I asked her anyway.

"Who, big Bobby, or little Bobby?"

"Sherry, you know who Bobby Wayne is, I never call big Bobby that. Please come and get me. I don't think I can drive home. Mommy is going to drive my car, can you drive me home?" Bobby Wayne was a jJr. and had been named after his father. As much as I loved his father, I was hoping it was him and not Bobby Wayne.

I called my husband at the time and told him that my oldest nephew had just gotten killed on the job and I needed to go to grandpa's and pick up Diane so she could get home. Within the hour we were on our way to pick up my sister from Miamisburg, Ohio and head back to Kentucky.

My teeth chattered as the cold chilling hand of death had reached down and claimed a member of my family. To keep from going hysterical, I chatted non stop all the way to grandpa's house.

We finally made it and I took Diane's car and drove it and let mommy ride with my daughter and her dad. On the way to Kentucky, I begin to get the pieces as to what had happened.

Bobby Wayne was the only son of my oldest sister. Blond curly hair, about 5'9", chocolate eyes and average frame, he was absolutely breathtaking. Girls were always flocking after him. He was 23 years old and had just married and had a beautiful 3 month old daughter. Life was looking for up him as he had gotten a carpenter job in Lexington, Ky.

It seems that Bobby was working on a building and was using the skill saw to cut the end off of some rafters. When he pulled the trigger on the saw and grabbed the roof of the building, too much electricity went into the saw and he was electrocuted immediately. The force was so hard that they had trouble prying the saw from beneath his fingers. As it was, they were not able to straighten them out. After investigation from OSHA, it was found that the building contractors had wired their junction boxes directly to the telephone poles and Bobby Wayne had 7200 volts go straight through his small frame.

I remember at the funeral home when I first got to see him. I did not hardly recognize him at all. The voltage that had went through his body literally fried all of his insides. The owner of the funeral home told me herself that there was nothing left of his insides. He looked as if he were 45-50 years old instead of the 23 that he was. How the electrocution managed to age him, I don't know, I only know that it did. It was gut wrenching to watch my sister as she grieved for her first born who was robbed of his life because some illegal aliens has wired 17 of the 19 junction boxes wrong to save on money. The day of the funeral was a blur, the service came and went and we laid Bobby Wayne to rest underneath a big oak tree. That same day before I could leave to go back to Indiana, I got the word that my best friend had just died of breast cancer.

Eleven months later, I would lose my baby brother Pete to brain cancer at the age of 28. During this same time frame, my mother would lose one of her brothers to cancer as well. It seemed like every few months that something tragic was happening in my immediate family.

But for me the most devastating news after Bobby Wayne's death was the news about his baby daughter. She was my sister's pride and joy and she was almost a replica of her father, same curly blond hair, big chocolate eyes and smiles every time you looked at her. But when the day came that we found out his only daughter was totally deft, my sister and I just went off by ourselves and cried. It was bad enough that she had to lose her father and would never know him, now she would never know what it was like to be able to hear the same sounds that he had heard or know the joy of hearing her father's voice on tape. But he would be so proud of her. She is beauty beyond description and is making it in a world without sound all on her on. Way to go Stephanie, your daddy would be proud of you.

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