My cousin just died.
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 7:56 pm
My cousin, Tim Hatton / Timothy Heufstetler (1987-2009) died last night (Friday, October 2, 2009 AD; Gregorian calendar) in a car accident, I just found out about it this morning. He was driving at night and he had been in a car accident that flipped his car off the road, into a lake. He was then trapped in his vehicle and eventually drowned to death. Tim was a good kid, who had a rough life. I remember when Tim's biological parents (Marty Heufstetler and Don Heufstetler) went through a divorce (because her husband had become an abusive alcoholic) and so my parents (who were, and still are, friends of the family) went through a divorce. He (as well as his four siblings; Matt Hatton, Amanda Hatton, and Jennifer Hatton) were pretty shaken up by this. My family then took in Tim and his younger brother, Matt (who is my age, whereas Tim is 5 years older than me), and they lived with us for a while. Then Tim's mother, Marty Hatton, started dating (and eventually got engaged to) my uncle, Dennis Hatton Junior, who was also a friend of their family and had sheltered them at his residence (which was really his parent's [Patricia Hatton and Dennis Hatton Senior] residence). Tim eventually went back to live with his biological father, who was abusive towards him and even threw him down a flight of stairs on one occasion. Tim then ran away from home (because his father abused, neglected, and mistreated him), but the police found him and he went to juvenile for running away. When he was released from juvenile he tried to live a normal life, but when he was trying to break up a fight in his high school, they mistook him for being part of the fight and he was sent to juvenile again. When he left juvenile this time, he was an adult and then he moved out on his own and reformed into a good, upstanding citizen. And now he is dead, at the age of 21. We weren't very close (well we were back before he got sent back to his father, but then we fell out of touch), however I saw him at family Christmas gatherings and such. If I recall, he was about to get married to his girlfriend, to which he was engaged. He didn't deserve to die (nobody deserves to die), we will all remember him and he will be in our hearts always.