Stephanie Wingard died tonight (Sunday, 7/26) after a motorcycle accident. We spent this weekend (July 24-26) with her at Beachy youth fellowship meetings. Here are a few pictures my cousin Hannah took with my camera this weekend:
May God rest your soul, Steph.
Remember, life is uncertain and we need God.
Full-res pics are here and here.
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Updated (6:22 PM, 7/27/2009) to add:
A cross made by Dave Miller and put beside the road.
Stephanie Ann Wingard – 1992-2009
Stephanie Wingard was the 16 year-old daughter of Olen and Emily Wingard from Zion Amish-Mennonite Church in Thomas, OK.
The Thomas church is a small church, so their youth group came up to visit Hutchinson, KS on occasion. Stephanie and her good friend and second cousin Bonnie Wingard (whom our family grew up with in Catlett, VA) often stayed at our house when they came.
Steph was at the Beachy youth fellowship meetings in Lott, TX. We had a wonderful weekend about evangelism.
She wanted a motorcycle ride, so Dave Miller consented to give her a ride on his brother’s motorcycle. Dave picked her up from where she was hanging out with some folks from the Arlington, KS (one of our sister churches that’s about 11 miles away) youth group and others. Dave only had one helmet with him, so he offered his helmet to her, but she declined. Dave was driving about 70 MPH. (I’m not sure what the exact speed limit was on FM 3369, but according to Wikipedia the default speed limit for FM (farm-to-market) roads in Texas is 70 MPH. Unless a study is done showing that 70 MPH is unsafe, it is automatically set at 70 MPH.) They were going around a long curve and Dave was crowding the center line. They met a truck, so he went further back into his own lane. In the process, he drove off the right side of the road into the grass. He slowed down dramatically before hitting a culvert and crashing. It’s unclear at what point Stephanie flew off, but it seems she flew off before he crashed. As they bounced over a culvert (pictured), she they both flew off the bike. He kept going, slowed down considerably, and then crashed. She sustained major head injuries as she was not wearing a helmet. Medical personnel say that she would have not been seriously hurt if she had been wearing a helmet.
Elements of the Arlington youth group heard about the accident almost immediately and drove to the scene, arriving before the ambulances and helicopters. She was transported by helicopter to Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, TX, the hospital of Texas A & M’s medical college. It is ranked in the top 15 University hospitals in the nation.
Text messages crisscrossed the nation, spawning lots of prayer meetings. That was great. Unfortunately, in the process, some wrong rumors got started—including one that said she had died before she, in fact, did. I’d like to take this opportunity to plead with people in these situations to make sure the information is accurate and non-exaggerated before passing it on. In this case, the wrong info started pretty far up the line and came from a source fairly close to the situation, so it was justifiably deemed reliable. It was, nonetheless, unfortunate. Receiving the news that she had died, then hearing she hadn’t, then hearing she had, is the kind of emotional roller coaster that is simply an unnecessary additional burden.
The hospital was having trouble getting oxygen to Stephanie’s brain because of bleeding on her brain. She was kept alive via life support until her parents arrived via small plane. Her parents made the decision to take her off of life support and she died 20-60 minutes later. Time of death was about 9:25 PM. From the time of accident shortly after the accident to death, she never regained consciousness. A brother from the Lott church relayed a message of love to her from her parents as she was still at the scene of the accident and she responded with motions and her eyes. She lost consciousness shortly thereafter and never came out of a coma.
She was survived by her parents, Olen and Emily Wingard, and her three younger brothers, Sawyer, Tyler, and Dallas.
Visitation will be Wednesday, 30 29 July from 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM at Pleasant View Mennonite Church in Hydro, OK, about 45 15 minutes from Thomas. The funeral is Thursday at 10 AM at Pleasant View Mennonite Church.
Please pray for Stephanie’s family and church. Please also pray for Dave Miller. It’s, obviously, been very hard on him.
-Hans
The sources for this information are primarily four people/sets of people. 1. Someone from the Thomas youth group with whom I roomed at the youth fellowship meetings this last weekend. 2. Several people from the Arlington youth group that were with her just before she took the ride, were at the scene, at the hospital, and got some of the details by talking with Dave. 3. Hearing one of the leaders from the Lott church (Elmer Slabaugh) describe via phone how he relayed a message from Steph’s parents to her at the roadside. 4. A Facebook message from Dave describing the crash.
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The verse Steph had on her Facebook profile is appropriate for us all right now:
Don’t worry about anything;
instead, pray about everything;
tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.
Philippians 4:6
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Here’s a song written in memory of Steph by my sister Heidi:
It breaks our hearts,
to see you go,
but we have peace,
because we know,
you’re in so much,
of a better place,
and you’ve seen Jesus,
face to face,
and though we miss you,
every day,
we wouldn’t want,
to take you away…
Chorus:
As you hold your violin,
and touch the brand new strings,
a smile lights up your gorgeous face,
a sparkle on your wings,
the purest, sweetest melody,
drifts through heavens air,
and you begin to slowly dance,
with sunlight in your hair,
and all of heaven stops to listen,
as you begin to play,
heaven just got a brand new angel,
today.And it’s so hard,
it hurts so bad,
as we recall,
the times we’ve had,
but through our pain,
and through out tears,
we can look back,
through the years,
your shining eyes,
your glowing face,
you left the world,
a better place…Bridge:
Steph, I love you,
I miss you too,
but I still smile,
when I think of you…
She’s still working on the music.
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Here are some pics from various people:
Picture taken by Eugene at fellowships this weekend
Photo taken (4/22/09) and posted by Steph’s mom Emily
Picture of Dave the day after the accident at the scene, posted on Dave’s Facebook
Picture of friends and family the day after the accident at the scene, posted on Dave’s Facebook
Here are some portraits taken by Clara Kuhns 4 weeks ago:
See follow-up post, Forgiveness. Another related post is my post from 2007 about the forgiveness in the Nickel Mines Amish School Shooting.
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Updated 7:49 PM, 7/27/09 to correct Steph’s year of birth from 1991 to 1992 and the date of visitation from 30 July to 29 July.
Updated 9:45 PM, 7/27/09 to correct/add details about when Stephanie flew off the bike and when she lost consciousness.
Updated 10:52 PM, 7/27/09 to correct details about when Dave flew off the bike. Dave messaged me on Facebook, making the correction.
Updated 12:19 PM, 7/28/09 to correct time of visitation to being 5:00 to 8:30 PM instead of the incorrect 5:30 to 8:00 PM. Also added time of funeral as 10 AM. Also noted that visitation is at Pleasant View and added a link to the Google Maps listing of Pleasant View (though Google Maps doesn’t seem to be quite sure where it is exactly, so proceed with caution). I also found several news stories that were on average fairly inaccurate, though it appears that that might be the fault of the Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman rather than the journalists. Added at 4:07 PM: Yeah, it was totally DPS getting stuff wrong, which was printed verbatim by the media. KWTX has scrambled to correct the article. KXXV has been asking me questions, but hasn’t updated anything yet. WacoTrib has been silent.
Updated 12:34 PM, 7/28/09 to add pictures of family at the scene the day after the accident.
Updated 1:23 PM, 7/28/09 to add the fact that Dave offered his helmet to Steph before they started, but she declined. Also added some comments about the speed limit.
Updated 3:02 PM, 7/28/09 to amend speculation about the speed limit, replacing it with a link to Wikipedia which states 70 MPH as the default speed limit for that road type in Texas, unless changed because of a study showing 70 MPH is too fast.
Updated 9:57 AM, 7/29/09 to add memorial song.
Updated 8:41 PM, 8/1/09 to add link to Forgiveness post.
Updated 09/15/09 to add link to Nickel Mines Amish School Shootings post.
