What I know is this.
Kevin Hammersmith of Duke Energy was killed in a car crash last night on Highway 111. On Facebook, his sister Tammy writes that Kevin was returning from an IUS function at Horseshoe Casino, and was hit head-on by a car that crossed the center line. It appears a guest was accompanying him. It's all on local television news this morning, but I don't watch local television news.
My parents and Kevin's were best friends, and from the earliest time I can remember growing up in Georgetown, our two families socialized pretty much every weekend. Kevin and I were close in those days, although by the time we got out of high school, not so much so. But we never lost touch entirely, and happily, in recent years I saw quite a bit of him, usually during events and fundraisers, and also at Bank Street Brewhouse when it was opened.
I richly enjoyed giving Kevin a hard time about being a stuffed-shirt corporate Republican functionary, and I'm sure he rolled his eyes at the beads in my beard, as well as my ongoing failure to assume the responsibilities of adulthood. None of that seems to matter much today, but damn, I'm going to miss him.
Sitting with him on the board at the Carnegie Center, I am shocked and saddened by this news.
ReplyDeleteKevin was upbeat and supportive of the community, a reliable board member, and bore all our ribbing about power outages with good humor.
After Tom Peterson's loss 10 days earlier (to a brain aneurysm), when I heard of Kevin's death I thought, "The Rapture is happening, but it's in slow motion".
It's a heartache when the best of us fall too soon along the trail.