Todd's Death (Part (13)

By Kay Heitsch

I'm going to put a warning right at the top of this post. This is not going to be for the faint of heart.

As difficult as I knew it was going to be, I had to go out to the accident site where Todd was killed. I didn't know where County Road 81 was, but Bill did. Bill had been there to identify Todd's body.

We drove in silence. As we rounded a curve, I saw a house with some small pine trees in the front yard. Bill stopped the van. My God, was this the place Todd died? What? I was expecting to see a large tree that he hit, not these pine trees.

I got out of the van and started to walk around. All of a sudden, I noticed blood on the trunk of a small pine tree. I walked over and touched it. I reached into my purse for a piece of paper and started to rub Todd's blood on the paper. Bill stopped me. Somehow, I wanted that blood because it was all I had that was Todd. Oh my God, this was real! Reality was slapping me in the face!

A woman came out of the house. She was wondering why we had stopped. She explained that on the day of the accident, she heard Todd hit the tree, and she ran out of the house. When she saw Nick, she went back inside and got a blanket to put on him. Her following words have burned in my heart. She said, "Because your son's body was crushed behind the tree, I'm sorry I didn't see him, so I didn't bring him a blanket."

You know it didn't matter because Todd was dead! But it still broke my heart! I wanted Todd to have a blanket, too.

I was still numb, but reality was sinking in. I picked up a piece of pine wood and got inside the van. I still have this piece of wood to this day!