33-Years ago today (6/28/15) he was involved in a head on collision on his way to a swap meet in Wyoming. He told me, “I was driving my 1967 Chevelle Super Sport that I built myself when I hit a truck head on, it killed my friend who was with me and left me partially paralyzed.” He told me that he had been drinking that day, but still thinks about it daily. “I can tell you exactly when it happened, my friend died,” he said.
I met him in Centennial Park (Nashville), he was looking through trash cans. “I go to the VA Hospital in Murfreesboro… I was in the Navy,” he said with a smile. His arms and stomach are decorated with tattoos that include some of the faces of nurses who have helped him over the years at the VA. “She is the most beautiful person I have met,” he said while showing me the tattoo of Zabreta Collins, a nurse at the Murfreesboro campus. While I likely have her name misspelled, he can likely spell it perfect as she was part of his journey in healing.
Pastor Rick Warren stated after the suicide of his son, “Transformation is a process, and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs. It's a journey of discovery - there are moments on mountaintops and moments in deep valleys of despair.” Warren told