Betsy was one of my first friends. I remember waking up next to her in a thunderstorm at girl scout camp when we were six years old, terrified of the sounds we somehow thought would reach us through the leaky canvas tent. She held my hand the whole night and everything seemed to be okay. Read the rest of this story »

Ashton was one of my best friends.. He meant the world to me and we had been close for five years. Our friendship started out as a relationship but we soon realized that wasn’t a good idea.. We didn’t want to ruin anything so we left it as friends…

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Carlos, also known as Shorty, Emo, Joelito, was only sixteen when he got into a car driven by a friend who had previously consumed alchohol. Merk drove waaay too fast up Shaker Rd, a dark, winding, 2 lane country road, as his passengers screamed for him to slow down. Too late…he lost control, hit a tree, and my beloved grandson was gone. Read the rest of this story »

Cross by the side of the road- Highway M-46 just West of Rock Lake

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When I was in high school, my friend Derek attempted a power slide with his car in the dead of winter but something terribly wrong happened…the axle broke and the car became airborne, then rolling several times after impact… landing upside down in a twelve foot drainage ditch.  Of the five passengers I was the last to escape the wreckage; trapped in the backseat with icy cold water filling the vehicle…

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On September 4, 2004, my niece was a passenger in a car that was driven by a friend who dozed off behind the wheel. The vehicle went off the road and rolled several times. Neither the driver nor my niece was wearing their seat belts. The driver was seriously injured and my niece was thrown from the vehicle. After three days in a coma, McKenzie Brownell Harrison departed this earth. It was September 7, 2004 when our beautiful, talented, adventurous sixteen year-old went on to another place.

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Ring, ring.  The phone awoke Julie from her short nap on the sofa on June 23, 1989.  She must have fallen asleep while watching TV.  She was exhausted from the events of the last week.  They had spent a wonderful week in Michigan visiting friends and relatives and had just returned to Wisconsin 2 nights earlier.  It was a long drive and traffic through Chicago had been quite heavy.  After 2 full days of work, she was happy it was now the weekend.  It had been a good day.  They had purchased a “new” used car earlier in the day.  Her husband picked it up at the dealership and brought it by her office to show it to her before driving to Madison that afternoon.  Hmmm, it was strange he wasn’t home yet.

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