September 23, 1989

That was the fateful date. It was a Saturday. They were having a baby shower at my house that day. The women were cooking, cleaning, and decorating in pink. (Must have been a girl.) Like most weekends Tim, myself and his nephew, Lee, (also a best friend) were hanging out together.

The house was filled with too much estrogen for us, so it was time to hit the road. We loaded up into his red VW Rabbit. (The same one we rode in a month and a half earlier to drop Lee and I off at the house we were leaving, to take my sister to the hospital, to give birth to my nephew Seth. At like 6 am by they way.) So we are loaded up in the Rabbit that we have taken on many weekend adventures in the past. Unlike most of those adventures, this day Tim chose to bring his 3 year old daughter, my niece, Rachael with us.

First stop was to go pick up his other nephew Danny, Lee's cousin. From there we roamed around back roads for awhile trying to guess which way he was going to turn next at each intersection. After a lot of turns we found ourselves at the beach, Bethany Beach, DE.

We went strolling along the beach picking up sea shells and the sort. We walked for about a mile till we got to a long jetty made out of some very dark colored rocks. Rachael was getting tired of walking so Tim put her on his shoulders and carried her for awhile. We walked back in the other direction until we came to an old wooden boat that was abandoned on the beach. It looked as if it had been scavenged for firewood. I later went back and took a picture of it, I will try to post it sometime.

Well after we felt we had wasted an appropriate amount of time we headed back to my house. Well things were winding down there so we headed to the confides of my room to plan out the rest of our night. Being a big Jean Claude fan (he had done only good movies like Bloodsport by that time) Tim tried to call the local video rental store to see if Cyborg was in. Unfortunately it was not.

In the mean time Danny and Lee had noticed that there was a huge sand and gravel pit a short walk through the field behind my house. They came in and convinced Tim and I to go check it out. So we took the trek back to the pit. We found plenty to do. Skipping rocks across the standing water. Find the biggest rocks we could to make the biggest PLUNK we could. Then we found these huge weeds that when you pulled out of the ground work well as spears. One of my favorite memories from that day was when I finally got one up on Tim. I saw him duck up a side of the pit wall to sneak attack me as I came by. So I climbed to the top of the hill and found him from behind poised to "spear" me as I came by. Instead I managed to "spear" him and give him the surprise attack.

Well then the wind began to pick up and it started to get cold. We found that if we stood in the crevices of the washouts that they would give us cover from the wind. We then began to make them bigger and start tunneling them out. Lee was in one and Tim was in another trying to work them together. I took over for Tim for awhile to give him a break. Danny was still with us he was working on one of his own in anther location. After about 5 minutes or so of digging Tim came back to take over for me again. I backed my way out of the tunnel and out and let him in. We were about half way up the side of the pit wall and I took a big leap into a pile of dirt at the bottom. Just after I landed and got my footing again I turned around to see how the guys were doing. It was at that time the tunnel Tim was in collapsed on him.

I scrambled up the hill as fast as I could and began yelling for Lee and Danny to come out. They both showed up almost instantly and the three of us began to dig. We had been digging the whole time with just our hands and that was still all we had to dig with. After about 5 minutes we realized it was going to take a bigger effort than the 3 of us could handle. We were 15, 13 and 13. We agreed that Danny should run to the house for help. I have never talked to Danny about what happened when he went back, all I know is that they made a call to 911.

Lee and I continued to dig with all that we had in us. Just about the time we were out of any energy at all we heard Tim muffle through the dirt. With a new spark of energy and a more exact location of where we thought his head would be so that we could at least get air to him we began digging again. After what seemed like an hour of digging and no help Lee finally heard someone coming. He got up and began to wave them to our location.

At this point the story veers again. Lee brought them to the exact location but the first 3 or 4 guys on the scene had no shovels. So it was more digging with hands for another 10 minutes or so till guys showed up with shovels and helicopter came in to shine some light down. Until they finally got him out and loaded him on the helicopter.

The story veered because by the time the men showed up with Lee I had walked off. I was kind of in a daze. Coming to the realization that he was not going to make it I began to walk to a trailer park on the other side of the field and pit. To this day, I am not sure why I did not just walk back home or stay. I think I didn't stay because I did not want to see him pulled out. The longer it was till I saw him the longer I could deny what was happening I guess.

I knocked on a door of trailer and asked to use their phone. I called my house and a friend of the family who was there came to get me and give me a ride back home. Once home Lee and Danny were there waiting and we huddled and cried for quite awhile. We finally settled down and managed to answer the questions by the 911 officials. My parents had taken my sister and had headed to the hospital.

I called my mom's best friend (who is like a mom to me) and told her all that had happened. She worked for a doctor and assured me he would probably be okay. That they can do a lot in the world of medicine. My spirits were lifted some. My parents finally came back home. I didn't need for them to say the words. The look in their eye told me.

I bolted for my brother's room to get away from everyone. The next couple of hours are hazy. I remember friend's from church there. I remember my brother hugging me. I remember asking my dad for scripture to read and he read a passage of Job to me. Don't ask which one. I don't remember a word of it, just that it did seem to help. That is about the end of what I remember from that day.

I thank God that on his last day on Earth I was able to spend it with him and that we that we had so much fun. I am thankful that he was able to spend the day with his daughter. I feel bad often that he did not spend much time with my sister that day and that he only ever had about 50 days to spend with his son. I try my best to tell the stories of Tim to Seth. To remind him of what a great dad he had and to be as good of a friend to him as Tim was to me. I cannot replace him, but I can remember him.