The Miracles Of Nigels Death

Nigel use to sneek up behind his mom, grab her by the head and lick her face from the bottom of her jaw up to her forehead...and then run like hell. We could never catch him.
Now I'm 50 years old, 5' 5" tall and weigh 20 pounds soakin' wet downhill with the wind. Nigel on the other hand was 5' 10" tall and was 165 pounds of solid muscle, spring steel and rawhide. 

He use to come running up the stairs screaming 
"Kiefer, let's do "Superman!"
 He'd jump on my back, we'd bend over at a 90 degree angle, his face against the back of my head with his arms outstretched and I'd gimp around the living room while he made superhero "swooooooshing" sounds.
One day he put me in a head lock at his hip level and drug me into the bathroom where Sandra was putting on her makeup and announced excitedly
 "Mom, Mom... I FOUND one! Can I keep it?!"
To which Sandra replied “Yes” and Nigel says
            “Good! I’m gonna go put it in water!”

We live in a huge two story log house, but we call the downstairs. The basement was Nigels domain. He had his bedroom, a living room with a totally cool entertainment center and couches, a computer area and his own bathroom. Everyday we had at least 4 boys down there (sometimes 10 to 12) doing I don't know what and don't want to know. All I know is that there was constant laughter, constant wrestling and constant screaming at the TV while they were playing video games. They’d come upstairs in a herd, fix pizza, grab chips and dip and sandwiches and soda pop and retreat down to the underbelly. Sandra and I tried very hard not to go down there. The cure for some kind of disease was growing on several pieces of sandwich in couch cushions at all times. I'd tell Nige to go clean his "domain" and in 10 minutes he'd be back upstairs saying he was done.
 

Someone was always spending the night. Didn’t matter if it was a school night. Sandra was the math teacher at Mitchell School, which is about 3 inches from our house and has about 40 students. But it was mostly Jake that stayed, and when Nigel and Jake got together it was a cross between Rowan and Martins Laugh-In and The Wild Bunch.
 

Once when Sandra and I went to Portland for the weekend, Jake and Keith and Nick decided it would be cool to set off a fire extinguisher INSIDE the house ...  UPSTAIRS ... (our domain). It was the only time that Nige wasn’t in on it because we threatened him with his life if we came home to chaos. He locked himself in our bedroom while screaming at the 3 evildoers that if they didn’t get it cleaned up, Sandra and I were gonna kill him when we got home. We won’t get into what happened when we did get home.
On a different day (while we were gone) Nige, Keith and Nick figured out that they could take our riding lawnmower and jump the 3-tiered terraces in our side yard  (you know ... like riding a 4 wheeler.)  They completely demolished the lawnmower but from what I hear they caught some “great air”. They each had to pay us $200 a piece for the lawnmower.

Nigel was fascinated with his butt. He’d wait until Sandra and I were watching TV, stand in front of it with the back of his shorts pulled down just enough to see his behind and pat his cheeks. The more we griped about it the more it egged him on. One hot school day I was out front working on my truck. Down the hill, training for the track team clad in tank tops and shorts, here comes Nigel, Jake and Dustin. As they approached me they are all three waving and yelling “Hi Kiefer!”. I waved back and watched them as they turned the corner down the next hill and all I could see were these 3 little white butts staring me in the face. I always thought to myself “Robin Williams ... watch out”.

Matt told me that after the truck flipped and he was thrown out, he was blacking out every few minutes. Laying on the ground he woke up and heard Nigel calling for him. He made his way over to Nige, who was trying to get up, but couldn’t. Matt was crying and telling Nigel how sorry he was and Nigel kept telling him  “It’s ok dude ... just go get help ... I can’t feel my legs. I think I’m hurt bad”. Matt tried to get up but blacked out again. He woke up and tried to stand up in the tall grass in the field. He looked up and down the road, but there was no one. Nigel told him to go try to start the truck. Matt made his way to the truck and it started ... for a second ... and then it died and wouldn’t start again. He blacked out again going over to Nige. Nigel told him he was going to have to start for town to get help. Matt tried to get to the road but blacked out again. The 2 two times he tried to stand up was, miraculously, the two times that the always empty road had someone on it.
When Mrs. McCormick and her husband reached the boys, Mrs. McCormick went to Nigel and her husband went to Matt. She saw the massive amount of blood coming from his back, pooling and then seeping into the ground. She knelt by Nigel’s head and said

 “What’s your name honey?”
            “Nigel”
“How old are you Nigel?”
            “14”    (He was actually 15 and we don’t know why he got his age wrong)
“I’m going to go get a blanket out of the RV Nigel and I want you to stay perfectly still and don’t move under any circumstances. OK?”
            “OK”
Mrs. McCormick went to the RV and got a blanket. She told me that Nigel was very calm and very friendly to her. By now, from the moment of the wreck, about 20 minutes had passed. She got back to Nigel and covered him with the blanket. She stayed right at his head rubbing his hair and telling him that everything was going to be alright (even though she knew he was dying). She said he kept saying over and over very calmly:
“I want my mom and dad ... Kiefer and Sandra Davis. Their last name is different than mine. They’re in John Day. I really want them here."

One summer Sandra and I decided that it was time to teach Nige how to drive. We took our truck out to the old logging road (where everyone takes their kids to teach them) and I put Nige in the drivers seat, Sandra in the back crew cab seat and me in the passenger seat. Nigel had feet the size of water skis so handling the gas, brake and clutch pedals on this tiny ford truck was going to be a hoot. I taught him all about everything and after my 15 minute speech we decided to take off ........  I never knew that someone could actually pop a wheelie in a truck.

Nige used to come bounding upstairs (he always bounded) grab Sandra and I in a huge bear hug, dance us around the kitchen floor singing “I love my family”. He would also bound up the stairs, get to the top, and yell “Penis!” and bound back down. We could never catch him.

Mrs. McCormick assured him that someone would find us and we would be there, all the while knowing that if we were 2 hours away it would take a miracle for us to make it in time. But what she didn’t know, was that God had created a medical and scientific miracle. God made sure that:

• Sandra was running late that day
   

• I went back and got my radio
   

• We stopped at the cafe before heading out

• Mrs. McCormick decided at the last minute to take a road they had never taken before

• Mr. McCormick looked in his rear view mirror, just in time to see Matt raise his head in the field

•  Dale Hughes slowed to look at the truck just in time to see Matt raise his head

• Even though Matt was drifting in and out of consciousness, he put his head up at the very moment someone was driving by.
   

• He put Dale Hughes and Mr. and Mrs. McCormick on that mostly deserted road at the right time.
   

• My radio went off seconds before we would have no longer received a signal.
   

• Something told me to go back and get my radio.
   

• He kept Nigel alive for over 45 minutes so that we could be there for him ... although as the Medical Examiner later informed me is “impossible with the injuries that he sustained”

The hearing is the very last thing that closes down before death. Nigel heard our voices as he left this world and touched the face of God.

The two voices that he requested.

He heard us telling him how much we loved him. If he felt our touches and smelled us near him, I will never know ... but I think he did.

There are 150 people in this town. Three hundred and twenty two attended his funeral. He touched so many in such a short time.

For those of you who don’t believe in God, I pray that reading this will prove to you that He does exist ... and He still works miracles. He can work a miracle in your heart if you let Him.

This site and story are still under construction. It's a long way from finished.