:::::::::::::::::::: Victors' Story ::::::::::::::::::::
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Victor was born December 7, 1966 and was the last of four children. Victor has one older brother Gene, and two older sisters, Vicky and Patricia which is me, the person behind the pages.
I remember the day that mom and dad brought Victor home from the hospital. It was the first time I got to see him. I just loved the idea of getting to play little mommy to a real baby. I formed a bound with him that would never be broken, not even after death. I worried about him just as a mother would worry. I was always protective of him and he knew this.
Victor was so full of life and I really don't think he was ready to settle down when he did. He was married and had two children by the time he was twenty one years old. He loved people and he loved to enjoy himself. Victor and his friend Joseph went to a party one night and this is where he met a guy by the name of Scott Charles Jones. When Victor and his friend Joseph were leaving (walking home) because their ride had already left, Scott offered them a ride and they accepted. I'm really not sure if Victor and his friend knew that Scott was drinking/drunk. My heart tells me that if he had known this, he would have never accepted the ride. Needless to say, he did and the nightmare for Victor began.
The story told to us was that Scott was driving crazy, swerving and speeding in excess of 85 mph on a 35 mph stretch of road. While his passengers pleaded with him to slow down. I can only imagine what was going through my brothers head at this time. That's something we will never know, but I'm sure his family came to mind more than once and the thought of dieing most likely did as well.
When the car flipped and threw all four passengers from it, my brother was the less fortunate one of the four. The car came to rest on top of him and I know from what a police officer told my husband, that Victor wasn't killed instantly. The officer told my husband, Victor was still alive when he arrived on the scene and that he had tried to lift the car off my brother. That makes me wonder if he was conscious while he lay there underneath this car. If he was, how much pain was he in. I try not to think about the details so much because when I do, it makes me crazy. But in telling his story, I have to be brave. Victor did not deserve this, no one does. Victor's life came to an end on that fateful night and just because of one person, for whatever his reasons were, had to be the one behind the wheel, hearing my brother and the other two passengers pleading for him to stop, slow down, took it upon himself to do whatever it was he was trying to do or prove.
Was he trying to be in control of three other people's lives that night, one might think so. And after this aweful tragedy, he drinks and gets back behind the wheel once again just five weeks later. He says that he was messed up in the head from what he had done and wasn't thinking straight. Well, let me tell you that if I had been the one behind the wheel on that fateful night Victor lost his life, drinking and driving would have been the fartherest thing from my thoughts. I never would have believed that he would turn right around five weeks later and be caught drinking and driving again.
Scott Charles Jones nor his family have ever contacted us in any way. He and his family may have been advised not to contact us either by the court or by his lawyers. And even if that were true, that was then, and this is now some 15 years later. I've often wondered what I would say if we ever came face to face. Over a period of 15 years, I have to say many thoughts and questions have entered my mind. Many questions left unanswered that only Scott would have an answer to. And unfortunatly, many questions left unanswered that will never be answered because Victor took them with him when he was called home.
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1/23/2007