....
Two of my best friends from the time I was 3 till I moved to Michigan when I was 16 died.. I can't stop crying. :(
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
BY MATT MILLER
Of The Patriot-News
NEWVILLE - They arrived in twos and threes, walking reverently to the little memorial tucked in a corner of a wheat field.
Most were Big Spring High School students. They stood beneath a gray, rainy sky yesterday to say goodbye to Heston Husler and Melissa Potter, Big Spring seniors killed in a Monday night traffic accident at that spot in North Newton Twp.
Husler and Potter, both 18 and of Newville, and longtime friends, died 18 days before graduation.
Some fellow students walked through the wheat, which was crushed where Husler's car and a pickup truck had careened into the field after colliding at Oakville Road and Route 533 about 7:30 p.m.
Many paused to write on a small poster that was clipped to a stop sign near a crumpled snake of yellow police tape.
"I miss and love you both, you know how I feel," wrote Maria Valek, a friend of Husler and Potter since kindergarten. "I can't express it enough, how much you meant to me."
Their deaths were part of a twin blow for western Cumberland County and continued a deadly week for teens on midstate highways. Five teens have been killed in crashes since Sunday.
Hours after Husler and Potter's crash, a one-car accident in Hopewell Twp. killed Miranda Sue Bert, 19, of Newburg. State police said Bert lost control of her car on Route 696 at East Creek Road and hit a tree around 12:30 p.m. yesterday.
On Sunday, two York County teens died in a car-train crash near Mount Wolf.
Police said Husler's car ran a stop sign on Oakville Road and was struck by a truck driven by Steven Z. Martin, 20, of Newville.
Husler and Potter were pronounced dead at the scene, Cumberland County Coroner Michael Norris said. Martin was treated at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Another passenger in Husler's car, whom police did not identify, also required hospital treatment.
Grief over the deaths of Husler and Potter echoed from the high school's halls to the aisles of Saylor's Market, the supermarket where both worked.
"Everybody is floored by what happened," market owner Curt Saylor said, his voice breaking. "Everybody looks at each other and you know what they're thinking. I don't know how we're going to get over it."
Chris Houck, a senior who had worked at Saylor's with Husler, was among those visiting the memorial.
"He was an all-around nice guy," Houck said.
He gazed at the two wooden crosses, one with pink ribbon, the other with blue. Just beyond sat the broken bumper of Husler's car.
Mike Valek, Maria's father and Husler's former Little League coach, was tending the memorial.
"There were kids here when I arrived at 8 a.m.," he said. "I'm just trying to help them when they come."
Big Spring Superintendent William Cowden said Husler and Potter were honor students and involved in music and theater.
They were in the band, the Cantabile chorus, the Shakespeare Troupe and the Odyssey of the Mind academic problem-solving competition. Husler had a scholarship to Dickinson College in Carlisle.
"Both were extremely intelligent, insightful people, talented and with a lot of potential," English teacher Lisa Yinger said. "They were the people everybody in the school knew for a whole bunch of reasons.
"Heston had the potential to go anywhere and do anything," she said. "When you came across kids like him you didn't worry about the future. You felt he was going to fix the problems we had created."
Cowden said it was not determined whether there will be a memorial for Husler and Potter when their 228 classmates graduate June 10.
Saylor said he and his employees want to establish a scholarship in their memory.
Their deaths were Big Spring's second tragedy in less than a month.
On April 29, Derek Morrison, 19, a 2003 Big Spring grad, was found dead of an apparent suicide in a woods near Mansfield University, where he was a student.
Husler and Potter's accident occurred less than a day after two York County teens were killed in a car-train crash near Mount Wolf shortly after leaving a party.
Police said Derek Shaffner, 18, a Northeastern High School senior, and Eli Mummert, 17, a former Northeastern student who had transferred to Dallastown Area High School, died at 2:15 a.m. Sunday when their car struck a stopped train.
Also yesterday, Megan Danner, 18, of Dillsburg, was injured when her car struck the rear of a truck on Interstate 83 in Fairview Twp. about 6:45 a.m. Danner was listed in good condition at the Hershey Medical Center last night.
The deaths involving students could give the impression that graduation season is a particularly deadly time for teens. But statistically, that is not the case, Norris said.
No more students are killed around graduation than any other time, he said, but the deaths take on a higher profile and deeper tinge of tragedy as commencement nears.
"Right now is the time when high school seniors are in everybody's focus," Norris said.
--I spent all of my time with them when I was there.. I even talked to them online all the time. I can't believe they're dead. T_T
Other articles:
Main article
Double Funeral
Other info.. (and their pictures)
Melissa's Obituary
Heston's Obituary
..*sighs*
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
BY MATT MILLER
Of The Patriot-News
NEWVILLE - They arrived in twos and threes, walking reverently to the little memorial tucked in a corner of a wheat field.
Most were Big Spring High School students. They stood beneath a gray, rainy sky yesterday to say goodbye to Heston Husler and Melissa Potter, Big Spring seniors killed in a Monday night traffic accident at that spot in North Newton Twp.
Husler and Potter, both 18 and of Newville, and longtime friends, died 18 days before graduation.
Some fellow students walked through the wheat, which was crushed where Husler's car and a pickup truck had careened into the field after colliding at Oakville Road and Route 533 about 7:30 p.m.
Many paused to write on a small poster that was clipped to a stop sign near a crumpled snake of yellow police tape.
"I miss and love you both, you know how I feel," wrote Maria Valek, a friend of Husler and Potter since kindergarten. "I can't express it enough, how much you meant to me."
Their deaths were part of a twin blow for western Cumberland County and continued a deadly week for teens on midstate highways. Five teens have been killed in crashes since Sunday.
Hours after Husler and Potter's crash, a one-car accident in Hopewell Twp. killed Miranda Sue Bert, 19, of Newburg. State police said Bert lost control of her car on Route 696 at East Creek Road and hit a tree around 12:30 p.m. yesterday.
On Sunday, two York County teens died in a car-train crash near Mount Wolf.
Police said Husler's car ran a stop sign on Oakville Road and was struck by a truck driven by Steven Z. Martin, 20, of Newville.
Husler and Potter were pronounced dead at the scene, Cumberland County Coroner Michael Norris said. Martin was treated at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Another passenger in Husler's car, whom police did not identify, also required hospital treatment.
Grief over the deaths of Husler and Potter echoed from the high school's halls to the aisles of Saylor's Market, the supermarket where both worked.
"Everybody is floored by what happened," market owner Curt Saylor said, his voice breaking. "Everybody looks at each other and you know what they're thinking. I don't know how we're going to get over it."
Chris Houck, a senior who had worked at Saylor's with Husler, was among those visiting the memorial.
"He was an all-around nice guy," Houck said.
He gazed at the two wooden crosses, one with pink ribbon, the other with blue. Just beyond sat the broken bumper of Husler's car.
Mike Valek, Maria's father and Husler's former Little League coach, was tending the memorial.
"There were kids here when I arrived at 8 a.m.," he said. "I'm just trying to help them when they come."
Big Spring Superintendent William Cowden said Husler and Potter were honor students and involved in music and theater.
They were in the band, the Cantabile chorus, the Shakespeare Troupe and the Odyssey of the Mind academic problem-solving competition. Husler had a scholarship to Dickinson College in Carlisle.
"Both were extremely intelligent, insightful people, talented and with a lot of potential," English teacher Lisa Yinger said. "They were the people everybody in the school knew for a whole bunch of reasons.
"Heston had the potential to go anywhere and do anything," she said. "When you came across kids like him you didn't worry about the future. You felt he was going to fix the problems we had created."
Cowden said it was not determined whether there will be a memorial for Husler and Potter when their 228 classmates graduate June 10.
Saylor said he and his employees want to establish a scholarship in their memory.
Their deaths were Big Spring's second tragedy in less than a month.
On April 29, Derek Morrison, 19, a 2003 Big Spring grad, was found dead of an apparent suicide in a woods near Mansfield University, where he was a student.
Husler and Potter's accident occurred less than a day after two York County teens were killed in a car-train crash near Mount Wolf shortly after leaving a party.
Police said Derek Shaffner, 18, a Northeastern High School senior, and Eli Mummert, 17, a former Northeastern student who had transferred to Dallastown Area High School, died at 2:15 a.m. Sunday when their car struck a stopped train.
Also yesterday, Megan Danner, 18, of Dillsburg, was injured when her car struck the rear of a truck on Interstate 83 in Fairview Twp. about 6:45 a.m. Danner was listed in good condition at the Hershey Medical Center last night.
The deaths involving students could give the impression that graduation season is a particularly deadly time for teens. But statistically, that is not the case, Norris said.
No more students are killed around graduation than any other time, he said, but the deaths take on a higher profile and deeper tinge of tragedy as commencement nears.
"Right now is the time when high school seniors are in everybody's focus," Norris said.
--I spent all of my time with them when I was there.. I even talked to them online all the time. I can't believe they're dead. T_T
Other articles:
Main article
Double Funeral
Other info.. (and their pictures)
Melissa's Obituary
Heston's Obituary
..*sighs*