My_Earliest_Memory

I wish it had never happened. Was it a bad dream or reality' I was only 4 years old but it was so clear to me as if it all just happened yesterday. On August 12, 1996, my cousin Chasity, and her husband, Jeremy Jones, were on their way home from Savannah, Georgia. While traveling on the interstate, a drunk driver crossed the median and struck them in a head-on collision right on the driver side. Jeremy was driving the car and was instantly killed. Chasity was the passenger along with another one of their friends, Jamison. My mom had just picked me up from day care and we were on our way to my aunt’s house when I noticed my mom crying. I can remember asking her what was wrong and why she was crying. After sobbing frantically, she managed to tell me that Jeremy had passed away due to a terrible car accident. Being so young, I had no idea what this meant. I could tell that it wasn’t good since my mom was crying. We pulled up to my Aunt Wanetta’s house to see a few other family members there too. Everyone was crying and talking about how nice of a person Jeremy was. Jeremy and Chasity lived in Savannah, Georgia on an army base while Jeremy was actively enrolled. Just a few weeks before Jeremy passed away, I can vividly remember being at their Georgia home. I took a little family vacation with my Aunt Wanetta and Uncle Bobby. The drive down was so long and was even harder on me because I was so young. Pulling up to the house, I noticed that it was a sandy color and quite small. As we were getting our luggage out of the car I could hear the loud roar of an airplane flying over head and seeing all of the jets behind the house parked on the base. Jeremy ran out the door and swooped me up into his arms with a huge smile on his face. He was so happy to see me and I was more than happy to see him. I can remember that all we did the whole time we were there was play together. I enjoyed his companionship because it was nice to have someone play barbies with me for once. We were only visiting for a few days, so on the second day we were there, everyone piled in the car and we took a small road trip to the beach. I had never seen the beach before so I was extremely excited. As I finished stripping down to my bathing suit, Jeremy grabbed me up and off to the water we went! We had so much fun digging for sea shells and trying to find starfish. I hadn’t been in the water long when I hear my Uncle Bobby yell, “SHARK”! Everybody started screaming and ran out of the water like mad men. Jeremy carried me out of the water and we ran all the way back to the car. Everything happened so fast and I was still clueless as to what was going on. Later, I found out that there was a big bad animal in the water that could hurt me so that’s why everybody ran. We arrived back at the house, Jeremy and I curled up on the couch together and watched cartoons until I fell asleep. The next morning Jeremy woke me up with Savannah, their chocolate lab, as she licked my face. I loved that dog! Everyday, Jeremy and I would play together and we would have so much fun. Most of all, I remember that Jeremy loved to play with me and he always told Chasity that he wanted a little girl just like me. He was the sweetest guy ever and loved little kids which made me like him even more. He was very handsome too. For some reason, mom didn’t want me going to his funeral. I was “too young” to understand, so she said. After he died, we visited his grave very frequently. Chasity and I would always bring flowers and ornament to decorate with. To this day, I still have his army picture on the top of my shelf in my room. Right next to his picture down in the bottom corner is a picture of Chasity and the paper from his funeral. He will forever be in my heart. I would do almost anything to go back and get to spend more time with him. He was such a special and wonderful man that we all loved so much. It’s a shame that people drink and drive. No one should ever have to go through what Chasity and my family did when we lost Jeremy.