This was the day that my happy world came to an end. It is this day, in the evening, that my wonderful son died. We found out at 2:00 am on March 9, 2008, which was the worst day of my life. He was involved in a preventable accident and died on impact from massive head injuries.
This is the speech I wrote for Cameron which was read by my neice Meghan at Cameron's funeral service:
When Cameron was born he was already a fighter. He came out with his arm up and then pee’d on the Doctor. I met Darda that day. Always a joker, he asked me if I was on any good drugs and we stayed in touch. Then Cameron became ill. He was in the hospital for 7 days. Darda was by my side every step of the way and he won my heart.
You may think you knew Cameron but you probably didn’t. He was a very shy and sensitive child. He took everything to heart! His heart was filled with love. He so loved his little sister Kristen and was quick to protect her. He picked on Kristen and her friends like any good brother would do. I know he is sad he won’t be here to interview her boyfriends. Kristen has many things to cherish, things that he made just for her, like a paintbrush holder decorated with her favorite things.
He loved hanging out with the Bieberle’s. He especially enjoyed spending nights with his cousins. They always had such great funfishing and skiing and doing all kinds of things together. Meghan taught him to ride a bike, something we couldn’t seem to do. We went to Auntie Deborah’s farm and it was always an adventure. He was great with little children too. He had so many cousins. He picked on Peanut and was Samuels protector. They were all in awe at Thanksgiving, when he turned a complete flip on the trampoline. He loved them all very much!
Another favorite of Cameron’s was going to nanny and pop-pops house. We went there almost every weekend and always did something fun. Hiking, boating, fishing, painting, drawing, driving the golf cart, riding the motorcycle (Pop-pop taught him that), and visiting many places.
Cameron had many hobbies and among them was collecting. My little pack-rat collected everything! Coins, stamps, bottles, pressed pennies, shells, even shot gun casings from a hunting trip with Uncle Daniel. All of Cameron’s treasures are now our treasures to remind us of what a great kid he was. He especially treasured the gifts from Great Papaw that were added to his collection. My Cameron was messy, but I would give anything to be able to clean up after him again.
Cameron also loved to travel and I’ll never forget his field trip to New York with the 8th grade. It was the first time he went on a trip without me. Leave it to Cameron to get lost in NY!
From an early age, Cameron shared a love for music with his nanny. Yanni was his favorite when he was little, always popping nanny’s Yanni CD’s in the player. Not too long ago, we went to a Yanni concert. He loved music so much that he wanted to play music himself, first learning the piano, then the guitar, then the drums and the trumpet.
He was an adventurer too, loving skateboarding, skiing and rollercoasters. He was a boy scout.
He loved comedy and was always playing jokes.
He helped collect items for the hurricane victims.
He recently helped Emily bake cookies for disabled children.
He was a good kid.
Cameron had goals. At one time he wanted to be an archeologist, then an astronaut. As he grew older he just couldn’t make up his mind and was still trying to decide about college and his future. He was considering staying with UPS as a driver. He recently talked about going on a road trip with his friends and had even mentioned marriage and kids.
Sometimes we would argue about tattoos and earrings. None of that matters. Don’t judge or be mean. Little things are just not important.
Our children are our gift and I will miss him so. A parent’s love can’t be measured-it’s more than you know.
I always told Cameron be careful, be safe. I still can’t believe it. It doesn’t seem real. But what’s done is done and it cannot be changed. So just please learn from this and let it not happen again. For I know a lot of Cameron’s friends. I ask you to please make good choices. I need something good to come of this.
