Six months ago today I learned that my friend DiGi had passed away in a car accident. Derek Pence was eighteen years old, the same age as me, when the car he was in (he was a passenger) went out of control and flipped, throwing Dig’ through the back windshield..
18-year-old dies in I-81 accident
Derek Allan Pence was pronounced dead Sunday night at City Hospital
By EDWARD MARSHALL / Journal Staff Writer
POSTED: January 15, 2008
MARTINSBURG — An 18-year-old Martinsburg man was killed late Sunday and three others were injured as a result of an accident on Interstate 81 in Berkeley County.
Derek Allan Pence, of State Circle, was pronounced dead by the Berkeley County medical examiner after being ejected during the accident.
According to police, Pence went into cardiac arrest while being taken to City Hospital in Martinsburg.
The driver, John Michael McFadden, and two female passengers were taken to Winchester Medical Center.
The accident happened at 11:08 p.m. in the southbound lanes of I-81 at the 19 mile marker, according to police, who arrived on the scene shortly after fire and emergency units. West Virginia State Police troopers P.S. Kennedy, J.J. Bowman and N.K. Campbell responded to the accident.
According to police, McFadden is believed to have been driving a 1992 Toyota Corolla south on the interstate when the vehicle left the road and struck a guardrail before going into a spin and flipping over three times.
Pence, who was sitting in the driver’s side rear seat, is believed to have been ejected from the rear of the vehicle following the first rollover. He slid for about 120 feet before coming to a stop on the interstate’s west-side shoulder.
The vehicle came to a rest facing north in the left-hand lane of I-81 South.
The accident was under investigation as of Monday afternoon.
Pence was a 2007 graduate of Martinsburg High School and was employed by Game Stop at the Martinsburg Mall, according to his obituary.
A memorial service will be at 4 p.m. Thursday at Brown Funeral Home in Martinsburg.
Memorial contributions can be made to the American Cancer Society, 122 South High Street, Morgantown, WV 26501, in lieu of flowers, in honor of Inge Lynch, Pence’s grandmother.
And his obituary:
Derek A. Pence
Derek A. Pence, 18, died Sunday, Jan., 13, 2008, at City Hospital, as the result of an automobile accident.
Born March 5, 1989, in Montgomery County, Md., Derek is survived by his father and step-mother, Eric and Shannon
Pence , and his mother, Doris Marion.
He was employed by Game Stop at the Martinsburg Mall.
Derek was a 2007 graduate of Martinsburg High School.
In addition to his parents, he is also survived by his brother, Kurt Pence, of Martinsburg; sister and brother-in-law, Amanda and James Tyeryar, of Frederick, Md., sisters, Tiffany Sanders and Amber Sanders, of Hagerstown, sister, Kellie Holman, of Gaithersburg, Md.; two paternal grandparents; two maternal grandparents; two step paternal grandparents; one niece, two nephews, a number of aunts, uncles, cousins and numerous friends.
A memorial service will be at 4 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008, at the Brown Funeral Home, 327 West King St., Martinsburg.
In lieu of flowers, and in honor of Derek’s grandmother, Inge Lynch, a breast cancer survivor, memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, 122 S. High St., Morgantown, WV 26501.
I was told about this through a 4am text message from a friend, who was on the phone with Digi’s girlfriend Becki. I wrote this in my Myspace blog on the Friday after DiGi’s viewing and after-party:
11:32 AM – A Day so New the Past is Dreamlike.
Current mood: renewed
So yesterday was Digi’s wake and party. It started to snow in the morning and it was still snowing when we got there. There was no school, I didn’t go to work because of a migraine, and we left around 3:30. When we got there we were actually kind of late.. the line to get into the room was long already. As soon as Nicci and I got in there and in the funeral home my body just started trembling inwardly from all the emotion.
When we got up to the guestbook I signed and walked some of the way into the room… and then I went back to wait for Dominic. I held his hand as we walked in and went over to John, Krispy, and a few other folks. Eventually Nicci and I went to sit on the other side of the room with Chris and in a cluster of my friends (like Becki, Danielle, Ming, Munchie, Justin, Mike, Emma, Billy, Faye, Andrew, Terry, Brandon). There were so many people they had to open up another section of chairs; and there were still people who didn’t have chairs out in the hallway; and still some outside who couldn’t fit in that hallway.
The service began and I actually took a look at the table at front and center of the room. It was covered by a red tablecloth and on either side was a standing lamp with a red tinge, and a cross behind it. On the table there was the picture of Digi I took at graduation, standing in a frame to the left of Digi’s urn. The urn was a red colour, too.. On the right was a picture someone else had taken that had his name shopped onto it.
Seeing the photo that I had taken was what made me crack. I just started bawling and shaking uncontrolably. Dominic held me until it subsided some, when people actually started talking at the podium. I think his grandmother or step- grandmother was the one who was talking at first. Then Joker came up, and sang this song “Please Don’t Bury Me” .. that made me cry again some, too. Parts of it made us all laugh. Digi’s dad went up to speak, and he broke down before he could say a lot..
When they opened the microphone up to whoever had something to say, Terra, Scarecrow, WaffleZ, Munchie, Pudgy, Chandra, Mike, Morgan, and Brandon all went up to speak. We were all crying and sniffling and laughing at the same time to the stories we all had about Derek. Had everyone who wanted to share a story gone up, we would have been there all night. But we had to close at 5:00, and so we all filed outside and scrambled to get rides to the Comfort Inn for Digi’s party. When we got outside I saw Gnorski drop to his knees in the slush crying… I stood by him and rubbed his back to try to comfort him. It was such a sad thing to see..
The party was just the way he could have wanted it. It was downstairs at the Comfort Inn with lots of food (although nothing really of substance) and a DJ. Nicci, Sophie, Nikki, and I all bummed a ride from Krispy. The deejay had a mist machine and flashy lights and techno.. Digi would have loved it. It was so much fun, too.
The first song the DJ played when we got there was a slow song.. and Wendell and Brandon danced together to it. Then when the dance music came on everyone got in a circle on the dance floor (there actually was a dance floor) and were having like a moves contest. Apparently Scarecrow won with some fancy hand moves (I couldn’t see because I’m short).
I saw Katelynn there, Pockets, Ron, Gnorski, Joey, Andrew, Mike, little Jeff, Becki of course, Danielle, Ricky, Morgan Brett, … well. Almost everyone was there. At some point I was left with Joey’s jacket, hat, and drink, and I was like “Oh jeez, now I look like Joey from the back.” And they were calling me his mini-me. Dx !
A lot of people picked me up. I swear I probably got picked up more often than the little kids there did. Rawr. But oh well, lol. Uh, Gnorski hugged me a lot. And I partially did that on purpose, to avoid being caught unmanned. Haha. And little Jeff came back from the bathroom after one of the moshes and like dragged me out on the dance floor and tried to dance with me.. but in his sweatiness he dropped me on the floor trying to dip me. XDD
Uh, I think the highlight of the night was probably all the juggalos getting to the middle of the dance floor and yelling along with “Homies.” It was funny ’cause there was a circle of guys and then us four girls made our own line because the guys wouldn’t let us in their circle. Haha. I’m sure that’s not really the case, but whatever. It was amazing.. and unifying.
I tried to join in the mosh thingy for “Bodies” but whenever the chorus started and the bashing started people were just moving me out of the way instead of ramming into me. I went over to Danielle afterward, put my head on her shoulder, and whined, “Danielle, they wouldn’t let me playy.”
Nicci and I had to leave early, because the ice had started and mom and dad didn’t want us that far out there during the ice. I stole some hugs and took my dyed green rose and a remembrance sticker with me.
The whole day was really.. liberating. I’m not so sad anymore. Scarecrow was right, Digi can live on in all of us if we embrace ourselves. That’s what he always did. He was always himself all of the time. And that is the key to being truly happy. I woke up this morning feeling like it had been one long nightmare… and that I was okay. Saturday is going to be hard but I think I am okay.
And I had been okay, more or less. And I have been okay, except every once in a while I hear a song, or do something, or someone else does something, that reminds me of him. Then I break down. I have a bit of a shrine to him on the wall behind me, which has yet to really set me off except, of course, when I was actually putting it together immediately following the accident. It still amazes me how quickly we all pulled together, probably over half of Martinsburg, really, some of us total strangers, to memorialize DiGi. Everyone was really supportive to each other, and we all got through thanks to that..
But every once in a while it still tears me apart. And I guess the pain never really goes away when you lose someone. You can set it on the back burner so that life goes on, but every once in a while it comes back to the forefront, and it’s a different kind of pain–duller, if anything–but it still hurts just as badly. To this day I would do anything to bring that man back, tell him how amazing he is, and tell him to be more careful that Sunday night…