Tucker was the last of five children to be born to our family. He made a grand entrance from the get-go, having been born at home without any help from our midwife! We have a close bond with our other children, but there was just something about the way he joined our family that was really special.

Tucker was very sensitive and caring to other people and their needs. He was humble, made good choices, and made us proud. He was such a good example of a true disciple of Christ.

He was involved in band and choir and had an excellent singing voice. We loved to spend time hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking. He played sports growing up, enjoyed tinkering around with engine repairs, and loved woodworking. He had a good engineering mindset and could have developed that talent into something profound. Tucker enjoyed making exotic wood pins and even used this talent to get an A+ on a school assignment. He loved to read and his favorite books were the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter books. Tucker hated having his picture taken. We teased him that he was adopted because we didn’t have very many pictures to prove he was ours.

Tucker had graduated high school and was trying to figure out a game plan for his life. He started working for a professional lawn care company and took great pride in this work. Whenever we drove around, Tucker would say, “That’s our contract. See how well it’s manicured? We are the only company that does perfect tree rings like that.” It correlated perfectly with his personal code of ethics.

The morning of the crash, Tucker decided to go with his aunt and cousin to Utah. We would join them a couple of days later. I am so grateful I could hug him that morning and tell him I loved him and how proud I was of him for the young man that he was.

As they were entering Snowville, Utah, his cousin lost control of the vehicle and hit the barrier in the center median, sending the car air born. The car rolled and then burst into flames just minutes after witnesses pulled everyone from the vehicle. We think Tucker was killed instantly. Everyone was wearing their seat belts, the weather was good, no one was tired or distracted, and there wasn’t any alcohol or drugs involved.

My brother-in-law, who is a detective for the Nampa City Police Department, was the one who notified us that Tucker had been killed. He didn’t want a stranger to tell us. When he walked in the house, we knew Tucker was gone. No parent should ever have to bury their child.

We miss Tucker terribly. His cousins, aunts, and uncles all miss him. He had a sweet girlfriend whom we still keep in contact with. Tucker often told us he felt like he didn’t have very many friends or that he wasn’t making much of a difference in the world, but after seeing all of the people who came to his funeral, we can’t help but think that he did make a huge impact on other people’s lives.

Tucker wasn’t able to serve an LDS mission due to health reasons and perhaps he just wasn’t satisfied with that answer . . . and now he gets to serve that mission, just differently than we had all hoped.