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When a tragedy like the one that struck Mondovi High School on Sunday happens, everyone takes it hard. But it’s the loved ones — the family, the boyfriends and girlfriends, the best friends — who have to deal with the hole in their chests that feels like it will never go away.
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Samantha Becker, pictured right, holds one of her favorite photos of her best friend, Jamie McKillip, 17, left, who was killed Sunday in a vehicle crash near Mondovi, Wis. The Mondovi High School seniors had been best friends since grade school. "She always had a smile on her face," Becker said. "I don't think there's a place that I can go where there's not a memory."
(Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News) |
On Sunday evening, Jamie McKillip, 17, was killed after the truck her boyfriend Jacob Froehlich, 17, was driving was struck by a car driven by another Mondovi High School student.
A rosary and necklace are draped over a cross at a memorial at the crash site — the intersection of County Road TT and Hagness Road in Mondovi. Shards of glass still sprinkle the grass and pavement.
Becker thought about not coming to school this week. She was supposed to share half her classes with McKillip. She came anyway.
“I ran out of pretty much every class yesterday,” Becker said. “But Jamie would have wanted me here.”
She’s known McKillip since third grade, when they sat next to each other on a bus to a fieldtrip. They’ve been best friends since fifth grade.
“She was a part of my family,” Becker said. “I’m a part of hers.”
For the past few days, she’s called McKillip’s cell phone to say hello. She wants the friend back who would scream over the sound of the high school band to cheer her on while she did majorettes. She wants to be able to go to basketball games to cheer just as hard for her friend who was on the team. She just wants her back.
“It’s lonely going to lunch now,” Becker said. “She was my lunch partner.”
McKillip’s death is haunting the small high school. All five of those in the vehicles — McKillip and Froehlich in the truck and Jacob Teigen, 16, Anthony Owens, 16, and Taylor Risler, 16, in the car — were Mondovi High School students. Owens and Teigen were taken by helicopters to St. Marys Hospital from the crash site. As of Wednesday evening, both were still in the intensive care unit.
Tuesday was the first day of class for the school of 375. At the traditional opening assembly, students observed a moment of silence for McKillip.
“As a school, we are a family,” Principal Mike Bruning said, “and as a family, we need to pull together.”
Additional counselors were set up for students, but for the most part, Bruning said, the students helped each other. The staff met Monday to talk about how they would deal with the tragedy.
Becker and McKillip’s friendship was always about creating memories, Becker said, and she can recount them over and over. Running through Walmart at 1 a.m., staying up late watching movies, helping each other get ready for prom. She laughs about how she talks in her sleep, about how her friend would carry on conversations with her that she never even knew about.
“I don’t think there’s a place I can go where there isn’t a memory,” Becker said.
She went to McKillip’s house to write a note saying goodbye. Midway through, the door to McKillip’s room slid shut. Becker said it was a message from the girl who helped her through so much, even a house fire when she was in eighth grade. She’s taken solace in their group of friends, and Froehlich and she have looked out for each other the past few days.
A visitation for McKillip is from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Kjentvet-Smith Funeral Home in Mondovi, and funeral services are at 11 a.m. Friday at Central Lutheran Church in Mondovi, according to an obituary. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery in Mondovi.
Becker has been asked to speak at the funeral, but she can’t think of what she’ll say. Maybe something about how her friend always knew when she was upset or always had a sly smile on her face. Maybe something about how McKillip always wanted to take care of people, which is why she wanted to be a nurse after going to Winona State University next year.
Or maybe how they had plans to buy houses right next to each other and raise their future families together. How they went to the nursing home together, they’d still chase each other down the halls, even when they could barely walk.
Before, Becker said, there used to be a sparkle in her eye, but it’s gone today.
“My boyfriend said you look the same, but your eyes are different,” she said. “I really think she was that sparkle in my eye.”
Nolan Rosenkrans may be reached at (507) 453 3519 or at nolan.rosenkrans@lee.net.
