This is one of those stories that made me want to grab my family and hug them hard. Drew Pearson, who was 27 years old and had just welcomed his baby daughter the day before, was killed in a car accident while running errands the morning after his daughter was born.
Most of us remember that first night in the hospital with your new baby. You are shellshocked with the new responsibility you have just taken on, not entirely sure what to do with this little person, and unable to stop staring at this beautiful little being you have created. One thing you’re likely not doing, is sleeping.
A sleep-deprived Pearson’s car slammed into the back of a slow-moving semi. His wife discovered something was wrong when she called his cell phone with an update from the morning pediatrician visit and finally got an answer from a staffer at another hospital. Finally the hospital social worker where she was came in to tell her her husband was dead. They had been married two years.
Before he left the hospital that morning, the new family got a few pictures of Pearson with his daughter. One of them is now blown up over the little girl’s crib, and his wife, Emily, says her daughter seems very drawn to them.
Family and friends held a fundraiser for Pearson’s wife and daughter. He was an instructor in the PGA golf management program at Florida Gulf Coast University and managed a nearby golf course. That’s why I am writing about this – not to bum everybody out, but to let people know. I know there are plenty of more tragic things in this world, but I think everyone who is a parent would feel their hearts torn out by this story.
