Page 79 - ACTL Journal Win24
P. 79
EDITOR’S NOTE:
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LUNCH WITH DAVID
Shortly after noon on Thursday, April 14, 2022, a classic spring day in Oxford, Mississippi, I visited with David Kro- use, my good friend and Ole Miss fraternity pledge brother, at a favorite lunch spot just off the Square. We reminisced about the beautiful previous weekend in Seaside, Florida, where David and his wife celebrated the marriage of my oldest son, William. While we were at the wedding, my old- est daughter Virginia delivered my first grandchild, Hayes, in Atlanta. The recent engagement of daughter Callie and the celebration of son Thomas’ twenty-first birthday only added to the wedding weekend’s festive atmosphere.
A buzz from my cell phone interrupted our conversation.
Caroline, my wife, was calling from Atlanta where she was happily experiencing her first few “grandmother” days with Hayes. “Something is wrong with Thomas,” she stated hur- riedly. “You need to get to his condo.”
Less than five minutes later, an Oxford police officer stopped me at the front door of Thomas’ off campus resi- dence. “Your son is dead,” he told me.
What?
Wait a minute! What? Dead? My son is “dead?” What do you mean, “dead?” Just the previous afternoon, Thomas and I worked on his resume as he applied for a summer job in Washington, D.C. He was healthy, twenty-one, in the prime of his life. A beautiful girlfriend for whom he cared deeply. Tons of friends. A good student, he was set to graduate in a year. Thomas and I had recently discussed the possibility of law school in his future. The world sat in the palm of his hand. How could he possibly have died?
LAST NIGHT
The night before, around 6:30, about the time he received a text from his mother with a photo of his new nephew and namesake (“Hayes” was Thomas’ middle name), Thomas and two friends crushed and snorted a couple of Percocet bought off the street. They met their dates at a bar and went to a party at the fraternity where Thomas was a member. Later, the three boys contacted the dealer and bought two more Percocet, which they divided and consumed.
Thomas and a group left the frat house for his condo around 10:30. After a few more hours of “late night,”
Thomas went to bed. He never woke up.
WINTER 2024 JOURNAL 78
