Hi - I'm Amber, Carl's sister and I would like to take this time to tell you a little about my brother. .
Carl was born December 28, 1974, the son of Mary Lou and the late Carl Dale Edgell. He was a wonderful son, brother and friend. I won't say times were always pleasant but it was an honor to have him as my older brother. . He had so many dreams, ones we were never able to see him accomplish. He was never able to graduate from high school here on earth but I know all of his friends in Heaven were there for him the day he graduated above. .

I remember my mom always talking with family and friends and joking of how Carl would seem to get hurt and spend just about every holiday in the emergency room . . One year for Christmas mom had gotten him a pair of Harley Davidson Jeans - he wanted them so bad. . It just so happened he got a new cassette tape and a brand new pocket knife . Back then they left the cassettes in the plastic carrier they came in. Carl had put his jeans on to see how they looked, sat down on the couch and started cutting the plastic case to get to his tape - he had it resting on his leg at the time. The knife slipped and cut through the jeans and into his leg. . He was covered in blood - yelling at my mom saying you're gonna have to take me to the hospital I just cut my leg. She thought he was joking, then she opened the bathroom door to see him dripping with blood. . She took him to the E.R. and of course he had stitches - it's been so long I can't remember how many but it was a lot. . He was pretty lucky that day - he was just inches from becoming a girl we always said. .The doctor said had there not been so much fat to go through he may have hit his main artery and bled to death there. .

With Carl, everyone was on their toes. . He was always the "class clown" type. You were always laughing when he was around. . It's been 11 years since he left us and I can still remember his accident like it was yesterday. . Carl had some friends over - plus our brother Shawn was here. Mom, Bill and I had gone to the grocery store. When we came back the boys were riding their 4-wheelers, Carl had been talking to mom before riding off and she told him to be careful because it had been raining that afternoon and the ground was wet. We got the groceries in the house and was unpacking when we heard Shawn yell that someone had wrecked. Bill took off down the hill not knowing what was going on. He yelled up and said Bunny, it's Carl call 911. We still weren't sure what was going on and mom was upset knowing it was Carl. She called and got the ambulance and fire department and police dispatched, only knowing it was an ATV accident. After hanging up the phone mom grabbed the first aid kit they made up ( Mom and Bill were both EMT's so they had a special first aid kit for accidents ) she got in the car and drove down the road.

Where the accident took place was in front of our house on a back road - the beginning was paved and the rest gravel. From what we know Carl was coming off the paved part when a dog ran in front of him, he swerved to miss it and lost control hitting the embankment and flipping into the air, causing the 4-wheeler to land on top of him in a ditch. When Bill had jumped off the embankment he had lost his footing, sliding in underneath Carl. Because of the tight space he was unable to get up and so had to stay until the fire department was able to free Carl. When the 4-wheeler landed on top of him the clutch had jammed into one of his eyes. Had this not happened he would still be here today. It seemed as if it had taken the fire department and ambulance forever to get here - but I'm sure it was only about 10 - 15 minutes. It just seems so long when you are in such a hurry for them.

When the emergency personnel got here they set their equipment up and started working on getting the 4-wheeler off of Carl. The clutch was unable to be removed so they had to cut just above it to fee him. I had gone to down to see him but they wouldn't let me through - they said I didn't want to see him the way he was. If I would wait I could see him after he was at the hospital and fixed up. A few of his friends pulled in and a few of mine who had heard it on the police scanner and knew the name and address. We all waited together, I was crying because I knew something terrible was happening. I could hear Carl yelling that it hurt and to please make it stop. The ambulance had requested a helicopter but because of stormy conditions it was unable to fly in so they loaded him and took him to the hospital. The paramedic with Carl was a friend and co-worker of my mom's and she said she'd take care of him. Mom and Bill followed the ambulance to the hospital, I was going to ride with my friends after I changed my clothes. We left my house and picked up my friends mom who was also a good friend of my moms.

We pulled into the hospital and my entire family was there. I wish I could have said they were there for a good reason. My uncle met me at the door and said my mom wanted to see me right away, that he was waiting to take me to her. I remember walking down a hall way and family standing around. My mom and Bill came out of a door and asked me to come with them. I didn't want to go until they told me what was going on. Mom looked at me and said they did all they could but Carl didn't make it. My heart sunk - it was like being stabbed in the chest. I never knew anyone could feel this much pain. I could only imagine what mom was going through. ( Sadly I would experience the pain she felt just 10 years later when we lost Randa ) Carl was laid out on a table, a white sheet up to his chin - just his face was showing and his arms were laid out on his chest. He was so blue and I hated seeing him this way. He had a gauze patch over his eye where the clutch had entered. I laid my head on his chest and cried. I wouldn't let anyone touch me - I was in such shock and didn't want anyone not even my mom to be around me. I wanted my brother back - I wanted to know why this had to happen to him. It just wasn't fair.

A little later the police came to the hospital to get information and I decided I would give it to them. It was just things about Carl and I knew him as well as Mom and she was in no way ready to talk to them about his accident. They made a report and said how sorry they were for what happened. The one cop knew Carl and had tears in his eyes when he learned Carl had passed away. His friends were showing up thinking he would be in surgery, but we had to break the news that he had passed away on route to the hospital. His cause of death was listed as head/face trauma. When the clutch entered his eye it broke his skull into pieces and some of them he had swallowed. They knew there was blockage when they tried to tube him and were unsuccessful. The paramedic who worked on him knew she did all she could and was heartbroken because she was unable to save him. She had lost a son years earlier in a car accident and knew what pain my mom was in. Later Bill told our brother Shawn and sister Charity of Carl's passing. Friends and relatives were in and out of the house all that week.

The news of Carl's death traveled very quickly - it was featured on our local news station ( though his name wasn't released right away ) which is how most of his friends and mine found out. I hated that everyone thought of Carl as a statistic, the news made it seem as if he didn't know what he was doing. That wasn't the truth - he knew all he could know about riding a 4-wheeler. The one he was riding didn't belong to him it was his best friends, though that didn't make a difference.
Mom went the next morning and made arrangements. We picked Carl's favorite songs for the funeral. It was a long and tearful process. I will spare the details of the viewing hours and funeral, only to say Carl would have loved every second of it. We buried him in his favorite clothes - Jeans, Harley Davidson T-Shirt and a Flannel with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He went everywhere dressed like this so it was normal for him. Plus we put his favorite stuff in with him - his 20 oz. bottle of Coke, his can of Copenhagen and bottle of nasal spray. We added pictures and friends added different things such a guitar picks, rings and necklaces. It was definitely a funeral service to remember. His favorite songs which we played at the funeral were - Led Zeppelin: Stairway To Heaven, Black Dog. Bob Segar: Like A Rock, Bon Jovi: Bed Of Roses, Guns -N- Roses: Knockin' On Heavens Door and Ozzy Osborne's: Mama I'm Comin' Home.

I'm happy knowing Carl is in Heaven with our father and I know they are taking care of my beautiful little girl. I wish none of them had to go but at least they are all together, watching over all of us here. Not a day goes by that we don't think of them and wonder what they would be doing here on earth. They are still a part of our every day lives - They are all loved and missed very much.