In memory of Tommy M. Childress.

He was born in Morristown,TN. Then later on when he was 4 days old we moved back to Eldorado,IL. My hometown. Lived there for quite awhile. When he was 3 years old he was out riding lawn mowers and towing kids around with the riding lawn mower wagon. Later on we moved to Nashville,TN. Where we lived for about 5 years. He was in the boyscouts and doing canoeing and things like that. He really loved it. He always liked the Dukes Of Hazzard

,which really surprised me when he first started liking it,I couldn`t believe it cause I loved it as a kid too. He did lots of things and got to see lots of things. In 1995 we moved back to Eldorado,IL. again,and are still here to this day. He had lots of friends,some he really didn`t need but I never said nothing cause that is how he was. When he first started training for his license he had to have a vehicle ready. So his grandma and grandpa helped him get his first truck. It was a full size Ford. Well later on he started getting into working on cars and fixing things up,

he spotted this hearse that he just had to have. It was a purple one,didn`t look all that great,but he wanted it.  He wanted me to go to see it and had said that he was going to trade his truck for it,so of course later on,guess what? He traded his truck for that hearse. He shined it up and cleaned the inside with pine-sol and all had it all ready to get legal and drive it around. He wanted to be different so of course he was. On Halloween he had to go drive it around so a bunch of his friends got together and took the hearse around town. It was so funny. He came home and had to tell everyone how fun it was. He really enjoyed that night.

There is lots of things I can really tell ya about him,he done so much,lots of things he shouldn`t and lots of things just cause he was dared. He would do anything just about anything. He traded a lot. Tommy went from his hearse to a 1992 GMC Sonoma,then to a 1996 Jeep Cherokee,then finally he decided to get a 1995 Jeep Wrangler,which is his last vehicle. He loved it though,even though everyone called it pink,he would say no it is Mango. He took it out jumping and mudding and everything a teenage boy could do,he would do it. He even broke the motor mount in it,but of course he sold things to get his motor mount back in. He got it fixed and out running and jumping again. We still have that jeep and to us it will be a memory of him. It will forever and always be in the family. On that day of August 4th,2005,the world became empty. A day I lost my son. I really don`t know what happened. All I know is that he was upstairs with his girlfriend and my daughter was called upstairs,she ran down to me and I ran upstairs with my baby daughter. I tryed nudging him and all thinking maybe he passed out or something,no movement,I called 911 and tryed CPR,I did everything I could think of to do.

The ambulance took him to the hospital and that is where they pronounced him gone. That really broke my heart that day. I went into the room to see my son,crying all I could cry,then all of a sudden his right arm slowly drops down to my hand,and I knew then,that he was telling me he`s okay,don`t worry about me. I grabbed his hand and held it and cryed till I could cry no more.

I had to leave the room and that is when they called the hearse to come in and get him. I watched all that,and it still hurts to even tell it. I never wanted to see my son carried out in that way.

After all is done,they did not find any drugs whatsoever in his system(freon can not be found by a drug test),nothing was really found,they are only going by what they found in his room,which was a mask and some tubing. The freon was in the other room. So to this day I am still wondering did he do freon that morning or did he not. Freon inhalation is highly dangerous and who would have ever guessed that freon would be something that a person would even think of,especially when he grew up around it all his life and even helped his dad put air conditioning units and stuff in. I don`t have any idea where he got the idea of doing this and I guess I never will. All I know is,don`t always suspect any child of just doing drugs anymore. There are to many other things out there. Tommy probably thought that it wouldn`t hurt him,well it didn`t,it killed him. We all hurt so much deep inside and I hope that no other parent has to ever go through this ever. He was my first child and my only son. Not a day goes by that we don`t shed a tear. If we had only known. Missin U Tommy~More Than Life Itself!!!!!