The snow that covers the diamond in Cheyenne Wells has been melting in one of Colorado’s more interesting winters in memory, including on the dirt road that runs through the outfield to the local fairgrounds.
While it will never wash away the memory of a lost child for Cindy Eden, it may symbolically purify portions of the present and future for her as well as others.
It’s a process.
“It’s one day at a time,” she said.
Her son was J.D. Eden, as in Jack Daniel Eden, named after his grandfathers. Of course, friends in small-town eastern Colorado near the Kansas border couldn’t resist. They called him “Whiskey.”
The 15-year-old died Nov. 19, when, as one of seven teammates in a van that went out of control on a country road the night before, he was thrown the farthest from the vehicle. An attempt to airlift him to Denver proved futile – he died soon after arrival, another victim of an automobile accident as a Colorado teenager.
A horrified Cindy Eden did the only thing she could do as a mother in a hospital room.
“I stayed until his heart stopped,” she said.
The end for the redheaded, freckle-faced J.D, a sophomore, may have been as numbing as it was abrupt, but Cindy Eden, handling it as well as she possibly can – at least, outwardly – has long-term plans for a permanent reminder of just how good of a kid J.D. was, a multisport competitor for the Cheyenne Wells Tigers, member of the honor roll and more recognizable than even she realized.
“I didn’t know he touched so many other kids and lives,” his mother said. She called it “a hard thing to take, even for everyone around town.” There’s still a car in Cheyenne Wells, a community with about 1,200 residents mostly in farming and oil, decorated in tribute to J.D. “that hasn’t been washed.”
By the end of the month, Eden and a determined community are working to raise approximately $40,000, the portion needed to have the state step in with lottery funds for an upgraded, permanent baseball field in honor of J.D. It would replace the couple of fields at the south end of Cheyenne Wells and add the new scoreboard (it bears J.D.’s name) to a set site, possibly with lights, definitely without the road in the outfield that’s also used for a parking lot for gatherings such as the Cheyenne County Fair.
Dozens in the area are involved, from county and school officials to others in nearby Kansas. They held a sweet Valentine’s night dinner Wednesday featuring down-home chicken-fried steak, chicken Parmesan and an opportunity to lend soothing healing to those who need it.
It’s called a field of dreams project for a reason.
“We’re short on time, but long on effort,” Cindy Eden said.
So was J.D.
In life, he mowed lawns, did his class work, played on the Tigers’ football, basketball and baseball teams, and was known to speak with local youth about doing the right thing.
In death, according to his mother, medical personnel, who also revealed J.D.’s growth plates were open and probably would have added considerably more size to his 6-foot, 170-pound body, reported he helped 75 people. He was an organ donor, having proudly checked the box when filling out the application for his learner’s permit. As an example, two infants benefited after receiving his heart valves.
It’s emotional – J.D. is gone, yet certain body parts of his are alive in others.
His funeral service, held at the school gymnasium, was gut-wrenching.
“The kids still have his picture on his locker,” Cheyenne Wells principal and athletic director Mike Miller said. “It hit us all very hard. People in small towns are close and related.”
The tragedy, which occurred at a sharp corner on a country road that has since been marked, hasn’t turned Cindy Eden’s heart black. Pending charges against the driver of the vehicle in which her son was killed in an accident, she said, serve no purpose.
“We do not want this boy to be punished,” she said. “We feel he has been punished enough.”
No, all she wants is for her son to be remembered fondly, and what better way than with a new field for a game he loved, one the area’s people can enjoy.
“It would be a great thing for us, a huge boon to the community,” Miller agreed. “And it would be a nice way to remember a great kid.”
Maybe it will help wash away some of the tears.
Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
