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MADD vigil set for Sunday, Dec. 10
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Location: Blogs Now We're Talking |
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| Posted by: Joe Byrnes |
12/9/2006 3:27 PM |
When I went to the Denny's in Silver Springs to interview Adrian "Stretch" Cummings, I had no idea the tall, disabled Vietnam veteran, with his white beard, ball cap and bifocals, would break my heart.
Cummings, president of the local U.S. Military Vets Motorcycle Club, spoke of the joy that a loving wife and daughter brought to his life and the emptiness he feels since they were snatched away.
He married Nancy on his birthday in 1971, two years to the day after he got out of the Marines.
"You spend 14 months in Vietnam, watching your friends die. You won't have much to smile about," Cummings said, looking at his own solemn face in a wedding photo among the pictures he had brought. "She put the smile back."
After the war, Cummings slept with a gun, he said. "She took all that weight off me."
They had a son, Marc, and daughter, Holly. And Nancy Cummings worked for nearly 20 years as a home health care aide. She encouraged Holly, a Vanguard graduate, to get her nursing degree from Central Florida Community College.
Then it was Nancy Cummings' turn -- she, too, became a licensed practical nurse. Mother and daughter worked together in the cardiac ward at Leesburg Regional Medical Center.
"They loved what they were doing," Cummings told me, "because they knew every day they made a difference in a person's life. . . . That's what made them so happy and proud to be a nurse."
His best friend, a disabled U.S. Marine Corps veteran named Donald Lee Adams Sr., often turned to Nancy Cummings for help. He called her "Doc."
Cummings and his wife made it a rule to say "I love you" whenever they parted. On the day after Thanksgiving 2004, those were his last words to her.
At about 6 a.m., Holly Cummings left their property near Lake Bryant in her old Ford Tempo with her mom on the way to work. A mile and a half away, on Southeast 180th Avenue Road, Ocala businessman William Perry Nichols Jr. lost control of his Ford F-250 pickup, swerved into their lane and rolled the truck right over the car, crushing its roof.
The women were killed.
A sample of Nichols' blood, drawn two and a half hours later, showed a blood-alcohol content of .104 -- which is above the .08 legal limit for driving, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. His DUI manslaughter case is pending.
Cummings will be among several victims to speak Sunday evening on the downtown Ocala square at Mothers Against Drunk Driving's annual candlelight vigil. It begins at 6 p.m.
He said MADD and other veterans have been very supportive.
"I was a Marine, and Marines don't cry," he told me, not when he was wounded twice, not when his comrades were slain.
But after his wife and daughter were killed, Cummings waited for the first day he didn't cry. "Days went into weeks," he said, "and weeks went into months."
Adams, the family friend, took his own life last December. "Doc was his option," Cummings said, and she wasn't there to listen.
He, too, thinks of suicide. He said he puts a pistol to his heart, sitting on the single bed where he now sleeps with the family's three small dogs. He looks at the pictures of his wife and daughter on the wall.
"And they keep telling me, 'Stretch, no. You've got to be there for us,' " Cummings said. "And then I get on my motorcycle and ride until I don't feel that way anymore."
Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or (352) 867-4112.
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Re: MADD vigil set for Sunday, Dec. 10 |
By Tom Miller on
12/7/2006 5:37 PM |
| It really bothers me that a person can get drunk and kill another with a motor vehicle and face manslaughter of vehicular homicide charges which both carry slaps on the wrist. If this same person got drunk and shot another they would face murder charges. When murder by motor vehicle is treated the same as anyother murder maybe the drunks will think twice before drinking and driving. I think the big problem here is that our lawmakers are afraid they would get caught if they stiffen the penalties for drunk driving. |
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Re: MADD vigil set for Sunday, Dec. 10 |
By peggy keehn on
12/8/2006 9:27 AM |
I WANT TO SAY TO STRECH THAT I AM SO VERY SORRY FOR HIS LOSS. BUT GOD BROUGHT HIM HOME FROM VIETNAM FOR A REASON, SO HE COULD EXPERICENCE HAPPINESS. AND GOD WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN HE IS READY FOR YOU, SO DON'T GIVE UP NOW. YOUR .WIFE AND DAUGHTER
WOULD NOT WANT THAT, AND YOU VERY WELL KNOW IT TOO.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR WHAT YOU HAD TO DO IN VIETNAM. PEGGY |
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Re: MADD vigil set for Sunday, Dec. 10 |
By peggy keehn on
12/8/2006 9:30 AM |
I WANT TO SAY TO STRECH THAT I AM SO VERY SORRY FOR HIS LOSS. BUT GOD BROUGHT HIM HOME FROM VIETNAM FOR A REASON, SO HE COULD EXPERICENCE HAPPINESS. AND GOD WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN HE IS READY FOR YOU, SO DON'T GIVE UP NOW. YOUR .WIFE AND DAUGHTER
WOULD NOT WANT THAT, AND YOU VERY WELL KNOW IT TOO.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR WHAT YOU HAD TO DO IN VIETNAM. PEGGY WILLISTON |
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Re: MADD vigil set for Sunday, Dec. 10 |
By Jennifer on
12/8/2006 7:13 PM |
| Thanks for doing this article Iam Married to Marc (Stretch and Nancy's son). This has been a real nightmare for this family. they are such a caring close nit family and what has happened is unforgivable. Nancy and holly are amazing people they would do anything for anyone and they spent there life helping people every single day and loved every minute of it. they touched everyones heart that they came in contact with wheather you knew them forever or just met them. MADD has been amazing to this family since day 1 they are often a charity that is over looked by alot of people but not one time have they ever over looked anyone in need of help. there is not one day that goes by that we dont talk about both of them, and there is not one day that my 2 year old son looks in the sky and says there is my mamaw and aunt holly, He tells me they are sitting on the moon watching him. I was blessed to know them for only 3 years before they were taken away and it was the best 3 years. Everyone in life makes mistakes but this mistake was one of the worest mistakes that can be made not only does drinking and driving effect the person or persons you may kill but it effects there family and friends, Life will never be the same for my father in law and my husband, We can only Pray justice comes thru. |
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Re: MADD vigil set for Sunday, Dec. 10 |
By Millie Kelly on
12/10/2006 1:46 PM |
| Just wanted to say how much I miss my friend Nancy. We became friends the first time we met. I was so happy the day that she married my brother Stretch. And on the day when she ageed too stand with me when i too married a vet. i miss Holly too. I remember the last time we were together and she had a good time up north running with Hershey across the frozen lake. I prodly have their picturs on a license plate on my car and I will never disrespect them by taking a drink and getting behind the wheel. Ther is'nt a day that goes by that I don't think on Nancy and Holly and miss them so much. I wish that there was so way I could help take away some of the pain that Nichols caused. I wish we could turn back time and all be togher again this Christmas,but we will be united again when justice is finally served. Sis |
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