Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home volunteer firefighter Rob Younger has been asked often over the last week how he is able to cope with knowing victims of a two-car accident March 22 on North River Drive in which three young adults were killed.
“I refuse to let death win,” Younger, a science teacher at Sweet Home High School, told those gathered at the funeral of Natasha Kukla and Amy Maisto on Saturday. “I will choose to remember Amy alive.”
Younger has a picture of Maisto in his classroom.
“She will remain alive with me by living in my heart and my memory,” Younger said. “The love, the impact she had on us is worth the hurt ? we feel here today.? Lord, with complete love and confidence, we give Amy back to you.”
“Death is not God’s idea,” Cornerstone Fellowship Pastor Jack Higgins said at Caleb Thornton’s funeral on Saturday. “Life is God’s idea.”
That is the hope that comes out of last week’s tragedy and the message of those who addressed the friends and family of the three victims during the funerals.
Kukla, 21; Maisto, 21; and Thornton, 18, were killed on March 22 after Thornton’s Honda turned sideways while negotiating a curve and collided with a Toyota Forerunner driven by Jeremy Orr. Orr’s passenger’s included his wife, Karen, and son, Dalton. James Reynolds, 19, a passenger in Thornton’s car, survived the accident and was taken to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. The hospital was not authorized to release information regarding Reynolds on Monday.
“We have the antidote for death,” Pastor Higgins said. Christ being made flesh shed his innocent blood so that everyone can live. “Through one man (Adam) came death, and from one man comes life.”
At both funerals, friends and family shared thoughts, poems and memories of the three victims, either tearfully or with a fond smile reflecting some treasured moment.
“Caleb was my favorite boy in that class,” a Sunday School teacher said. “He was really into bikes. We’d be in a serious discussion about God, and he’d raise his little hand and say, ‘What do you think about a bike ramp in Sweet Home?’ I’d say, ‘Caleb, don’t you ever think about anything besides bikes?’ And he’d say, ‘Nope.'”
Thornton’s employer and friend from Bend told about the battles with caulking between him and Thornton.
“He was such a great person,” a friend said. “We miss him so much, but we know he’s in a better place.”
He had about 10 girls with him at the prom, another friend said. “He was just a blast. I just pray he’s watching over us now. My prayers are with his family and friends.”
When Thornton was having some serious troubles, he came to talk to Pastor Higgins.
“He was pretty upset about it,” Pastor Higgins said. “I said, ‘Caleb, all I can tell you is you need to spend time in the Bible.’ He said, ‘I have been.’ Caleb was a deep thinker.”
Quoting from family, River of Life Pastor Gary Hooley said, “Natasha was blessed with a very big heart ? a big smile that seemed to say, welcome, let’s be friends.”
She was a “people person,” Pastor Hooley said. “Relationships were important to Natasha.”
She was a negotiator, mediator and diplomat, Pastor Hooley said. When her friends were arguing, she would step in to stop it.
She was a good and willing worker who enjoyed her first job at the Sweet Home High School student store and Wal-Mart, where she worked when she died, Pastor Hooley said. “Natasha loved cars, especially her own. She was always on the go, never alone though always with friends.? She thought her dad was too protective, and she would respond to his concerns with, ‘Oh, dad.'”
She was fussy about her appearance and had a stash of music CDs, like others her age, Pastor Hooley said. She loved Sweet Home and stayed when her family moved to Missouri.
She talked with her family last on March 21, Pastor Hooley said. The last conversation ended with “I love you.”
“We want to a celebration of the life of Amy Lynn Maisto,” Younger said. She excelled in the classroom, and, “like Natasha, was a people person. She loved the dance, and she learned to love to teach dance. Amy matured into a beautiful young lady” inside and out. She had a “caring, loving attitude toward others, with a great sense of humor” that could light up any classroom.
“I have the assurance that someday, Amy will be waiting for me in heaven with that big smile,” Younger said.
When Jesus the Christ was anticipating his crucifixion, Pastor Hooley said, “he wasn’t going to leave (the disciples) without hope, that he went to prepare a place for them.”
When Thomas asked how they would know the way, Jesus told him, “I am the way the truth and the life,” Pastor Hooley said. He identified the path to heaven and the hope available to everyone in confronting death, and each person must either accept or reject it.
“The comfort we have in our hearts is that these ladies chose Christ,” Pastor Hooley said.
At Thornton’s funeral, Tim Riley said, “these times at funerals are when you get to talk about how people that passed on are very important.”
When persons are younger, Riley said, they roll their eyes at “the old fuddy duddy preaching at you.”
But the “fuddy duddies” only keep saying “don’t do this” because “you’re important,” Riley said. “We’ve made the stupid mistakes” and know the consequences.
“We love you and we want you to be around,” Riley said. “Everyone of you. You’re important.”