Patrick Easton, 20 years old, died at 4:30pm on January the eleventh at exit 140 on I-65 North due to acute engine failure brought on by a damaged cam shaft.
Patrick was born in 1991 and adopted by Mckay and Sheri Easton on April 12th, 2008. Together they have traveled in 8 states, visiting friends and family. He is survived by his parents and step-brother, Dallin.
Patrick has repeatedly traversed the scenic Colorado Mountains, including a Honeymoon trip in Glenwood Springs, and a return trip from camping through Aspen. He got us to Eagle Lake, California for the Crapo family 4th of July camping trip.
We hoped we could have seen him make it to 200,000 miles, but he has lived long.
Although he has had a long life, he has also experienced many injuries. On one such occasion, we were driving to St. Louis for Christmas in 2008. Sheri was 6 months pregnant and Mckay was recovering from his bike accident so we were a pretty pathetic pair. At 10pm, his alternator failed at the Kansas Turnpike tollbooth. We kept warm in an empty tollbooth while waiting to be towed to nearby Lawrence, Kansas. We had help from Dad Crapo and brother-in-law Ryan, who came from St. Louis in the middle of the night to rescue us. What a Christmas we had!
He has had to endure all types of ridicule because of his old age, but he endured it with grace.
He helped us move from Utah to Indiana during the summer of 2010. He was a small car, so he was packed to the roof with boxes and clothes and Dallin's toys. Like the little engine that could, he made it over Vail pass going 30 mph.
(Patrick at last year's Trunk or Treat)
On the journey he would never complete, Sheri was driving back from Dallin's doctor appointment in Indianapolis. He braved the elements of wind and snow, but 30 miles from home, he could not endure to go on. The tow company said it could take 40 minutes in the blizzard to reach Patrick. Together Sheri, Dallin and Patrick sat on the shoulder of the busy highway while large trucks zoomed past. A policeman came to our aid shortly thereafter. He even called the tow truck to demand that he get there as soon as possible. But it was too late; Patrick had passed away.
His body has been buried in the local junkyard, but his memory has been buried in our hearts.
5 comments:
Oh, poor Patrick. I hope you left him with some yummy peach scented air fresheners. I know how he loves those. I forgot about that butt ugly thing. That was pretty funny. Good job on the post. A nice eulogy for old patty.
Is he an organ donor? I'm sure others will greatly benefit from his death in parts. :)
Great post. I'm glad I got to share in some of those memories. We got rid of our first car just before it died. When the new owner drove it away, John cried. I had no idea that he had became emotionally attached to it.
That was a super cute post. The "butt ugly" picture is a favorite of mine. I don't know how Patrick managed to die with such a symmetrical number on his odometer but that was pretty awesome. You and Mckay giving Patrick his last hugs is very cute. Good bye Patrick (sniff sniff) You will be missed!
That odometer reading was not his actual last mileage. That was a few weeks before he died, and I thought the number was so cool I pulled over to take a picture.
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