Posted by Risa on 7/23/2004, 1:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Marys mom" Joseph Edward Keller was born on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, on June 1, 1980. Our Little Joey was the youngest of our four children. Joe was a very pleasant child to bring up. It always seemed we had the perfect family. A parents ideal dreams were coming true. Tom & Elizabeth were both out of school, and pursuing careers. Mike, an easy-going junior in high school, and Joe, our baby, was just as easy-going as his brother. Life was finally slowing down a little: only one baseball practice, instead of four! On August 18th, 1994, all of that changed. A tropical storm had passed through the area, and it had rained for days on end. Joe and four of his friends from school were bored after being stuck in the house for almost a week. He and his schoolmates called each other the night of the 17th, and decided they would get together. School was about to start in less than two weeks, and they felt they needed a chance to have some fun before it started. We live in the country, so they decided to go for a long bike ride, stop at their favorite swimming spot, and also doing some bridge jumping. It was a normal thing for them to do on summer day. It was shortly after noon when they decided they had to head for home. Joe was supposed to be home by one to let the Sears repairman in to fix the washer. When they were getting ready to come home, one of the girls that was with them decided to go back in swimming, when she did, she went in on the lower side of a low-head dam. The hydraulics of the dam pulled her under. Joe and his friend tried going in to save her. The other young man was much smaller than Joe, and changed his mind. Joe attempted to save the life of his schoolmate. He was not as lucky as she was. A low-head dam has a mind of its own, it decides how long to hold onto whatever it is that it has, and Joe was held under the water too long. One of the boys ran to the campground across the road to call for help, while the owners of the campground came out to try to help. The paramedics were on the scene shortly. The paramedic that worked on Joe was my cousin Mark. He tried so hard to save Joes life that day, along with the other EMTs, I will be forever grateful to them for their help. On the way to the hospital, they were finally able to get a heartbeat on him again. It was touch-and-go for the next few hours until he was stable. My husband, Dave, was called at work and told about the accident, the HR person took him to the hospital to meet Joe. I arrived home about 4 PM. My sister, Darlene, arrived shortly after I got the news from my daughter that Joe was in an accident. My daughter, Elizabeth, was still trying to find her brother, Mike, and was planning on picking up Tom from work, and going to the hospital. They were flying Joe, via Life Lion helicopter from Hanover to York Hospital to be taken care of by the Trauma Unit. Most of us arrived at the hospital at the same time. I will never forget the sound of Life Lion landing. We were met by the patient rep. and put in a room to wait for news. Dave was not there yet; he was being driven from Hanover to York. As we all gathered in this room, the doctor came in, and told us very bluntly that Joe was not going to make it. He said they had lost him at the creek, and several times after that, and he had no chance of making it. I remember sitting there, not knowing what to say. I thought he had broken an arm or a leg
not drowned! My son was an expert swimmer, how could that happen? I remember my oldest sister asking where he was and if we could see him, just to let him know that we were there, and he was not alone. I was speechless when he replied that it didnt matter, he would not know we were there anyway. This went against everything that I had ever believed in. I asked the doctor if he was still alive and he replied, Yes, and I said, Then there is still hope for him. The next few days were touch and go
many hurdles to cross, and me thinking that each day he made it through was a good thing, that he was going to pull through this, he was young, strong, and determined. We spent those days sitting with Joe, reading to him, talking to him, or just quietly sitting by his side, and praying. On another beautiful Sunday morning, we were told that our son, Joe, had died, that he was brain dead. I had a problem understanding exactly what that meant. We shared this with our extended family and friends who had become our support through all of this, who held a 24-hour vigil at the hospital with us. We told them Joe was still there if they wanted to say good bye, and we returned to the room to make arrangements for Joe. Several people met us when Dave and I returned. The doctor, and nurses, Tom & Rick, transplant coordinators from Delaware Valley Transplant Program, (now GOLDP) the chaplain at the hospital (who happened to have been the priest at our church when Joe was a baby, and had baptized him). They asked us how we felt about organ donation, and I immediately told them No! My husband said yes. I told them it wasnt fair. He had risked his life to save someone else, and now they were asking for him to give even more! We spent an endless amount of time after that talking about Joe, and the kind of kid he was. Joe was a great kid. We told stories about him and shared his life with all that were there. Joe was a great athlete; he played baseball, basketball, wrestled, and was on the swim team when he was very young. He was also a Boy Scout, on his way to being an Eagle Scout. It just wasnt fair that such a good kid, with a good future ahead of him should loose his life. As we sat and talked about Joe, Tom the one coordinator said to me, you know you have told us about Joe, and he sounded like a great kid who had a heart of gold, wouldnt it be a shame to loose that, and not be able to share it with someone else? At that point, I could not agree with him more. After all if he had not had a heart of gold, we would not have been there, he was always trying to help someone out. to be continued
Janet's son Joe
Message Thread:
« Back to thread