Anita Wicker Dedication Memorial Website

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A man ,son, father and friend to many but most of all my boyfriend/fiancé that will never be forgotten.

Jeff (Kornbread) he was more known as was killed in the line of duty 2-19-05 while transporting a patient to the hospital. Struck by a train and also killing two of his partners, Chris Clingan

of Texarkana ( Paramedic of the crew) and

Jay Rook

of Hope Arkansas. All three men being honored in so many ways for their courage.

I knew Jeff for a little over a year but became his official girlfriend / well more than just a girlfriend we saw each other non stop dating 3 months before the accident. After Valentines day 2005 we decided we both needed a year to both get some priorities taken care of before we married. I thank God for the time I was able to share with him. I was able to get to know Chris and Jay through Pafford upon visits with Jeff. Chris was always full of smiles and he and Jeff would in their spare time shoot hoops from a basketball goal I gave them (now donated it) to kill some time while they awaited the next emergency call. Chris's pass time was also his love Laci. Jay, I visited with him several times when he came to Pafford which the day of the accident was his actual official employed weekend. Jay was always eager to express his thoughts and views of heaven and Jesus and he just wanted everyone to get along in the world, he also that Friday evening introduced us all to Jennifer his love of his life.

All three men were very well known and loved. Most of all, they loved their job that just wasn't a job of just sittin around dreadfully awaiting to go out on an emergency run. They took pride and care in their patients from the young to the elderly.

I know I'm not the only one who miss's these men. God knows and hears my cries but I have to also try and stay strong as I know Jeff would want me too. He said a week before the accident to "no matter what happens, I want you to promise me you'll never stop singing" I said of course ya ya in fun and he held my face and again said "promise me", I could feel his heart and his warm eyes that he was serious for some unknown reason. We spent that week together as much as possible with him working and me helping with the peewee basketball teams and my girls. But mostly I'll never forget the trip we made taking his mother to Little Rock to see her doctor that Wednesday of the accident and Thursday when we ate lunch with his mother and aunt at the catfish king there in Hope. Sometimes memories are all we can hold onto that puts a smile back on our face to make it through another day.

That Friday Jeff of course had to work, I went to Pafford and visited with him and Chris and Jay and the rest of the Pafford crew. I didn't want Jeff to work that weekend for I had a bad feeling that I didn't understand myself and thought that maybe I was just trying to be selfish in not wanting him to work. He wouldn't ask to switch weekends for it would cause hardship on the crews and just reassured me that come Monday morning when he got off duty we would spend all our time together, and so I tried to deal with that. Saturday I had a peewee basketball game. We spoke off and on and after I got home I had some errands to do in Hope and so we agreed that I'd come up to Pafford and visit. While I was getting changed and purrdied up to come see him, Jeff called me back and told me to just wait that he'd call me back when he got back to Pafford that they were runnin hot on an emergency call. Well there're is more to that story but I'll keep it short but for the record I felt doom but as any other call he would call me after he made it back so I as always waited till he was able to call.

It was almost 1:45 pm and something like a heavy shadow hit me in fear that something was terribly wrong. I then about 2pm started getting calls of the accident. I immediately told my daughter of what little I knew and flew in my vehicle to Pafford to find out what had happened. I then was not able to drive out to the scene and as you can imagine in any horrible accident peoples lives were shattered as well as the community.

The Ambulances, police escorts, emergency crews and family and friends witnessed hopefully the last big funerals in our lifetime.

I managed to sing 3 songs at Jeff's funeral, as hard as it was, Jeff and God pulled me through it. I knew it would be the last time I could sing to Jeff and every time I felt my heart giving way, a sweet spirit wouldn't let me fall.

I'm still to this day I see and spend time with Jeff's mother Ula, which she tries to hold it together but like me, you have your good days and then I guess what we call our selfish days where we just want to have the guys back.

But we know one day we will see each other again and then it wont be just for a moment.

I don't write this for pity. I only do so because its a story like many that have gone down in history, these 3 men deserved so much more in life. But their courage in their job made them hero's in everyone's eyes.

Listen To (My Valentine -

I Recorded For Valentines Day For Jeff 2-13-2005 ....

Before He Was Killed On 2-19-2005. I Decided It Was Time To Share It.

HOPE--Jeffrey Scott "Kornbread" Ferrand, 37, of Hope, died Saturday, February 19, 2005, in Hempstead County in an ambulance-train accident. He was born September 7, 1967, in Hope to Charles and Ula Dean Ross Ferrand. He was an EMT with Pafford Ambulance Service in Hope. He was a Baptist; an Army veteran and a member of A.B.A.T.E., District 10. He was preceded in death by his father, Charles Ferrand, who died in 1989.

Survivors include two sons, Jeremy Scott Ferrand and Zachary Ryan Ferrand, both of Hope; one daughter, Sarah Ann Dean Ferrand, of Junction City; his mother, Ula Dean Ross Ferrand, of Hope; two sisters, Lorie Ann Ferrand Walters, of Hope, and Sherry Louise Ferrand Vallance, of Ft. Worth, Texas, and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22, at Brazzel/Oakcrest Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Jerry Crane and Steve Glover officiating. Burial will follow in Memory Gardens Cemetery in Hope. Arrangements are by Brazzel/Oakcrest Funeral Home in Hope. Family will receive friends Monday, February 21 from 6-8 p.m. at Brazzel/Oakcrest Funeral Home in Hope.

TEXARKANA--Christopher Dale "Chris" Clingan, 23, of Texarkana, died Saturday, February 19, 2005 in a Texarkana hospital. He was born March 18, 1981, in Texarkana. He was a member of Liberty Baptist Church. He was employed as a paramedic at the Pafford Ambulance Service, Nevada County Ambulance Service, International Paper, and was a volunteer with the Liberty Eylau Fire Department. He was also a member of CASA and the International Registry of Paramedics and EMTs.

Survivors include his parents, Dale and Barbara Clingan, of Texarkana; two sisters and one brother in law, Deanna and Joe Rush, and Stephanie Clingan, both of Texarkana; his grandmothers, Agnes Clingan of Texarkana, and Emily Snowden, of New Boston, Texas; two special friends, Tina Young and Lacy Hale, and a number of other relatives and friends.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Chapelwood Funeral Home Chapel in Nash, Texas, with Reverends Larry McWilliams and Chad Thompson officiating. Burial will be in the Ringwood Cemetery in Old Boston, Texas. Family will receive friends at the funeral home Tuesday evening from 6:30-8 p.m. Memorial may be made to the Gideon's International, P. O. Box 1425, Texarkana, Texas 75504 or the Wadley Foundation, 1000 Pine Street, Texarkana, Texas 75501.

HOPE--Jay Rook, 23, of Hope, died Saturday, February 19, 2005, in Hempstead County, in an ambulance-train accident. He was born November 11, 1981, in Tupelo, Miss. He was an EMT. He was a member of Shover Springs Baptist Church in Shover Springs; a police Explorer; an Eagle Scout and adult boy scout leader. He worked at the Charitable Christian Medical Clinic in Hope and was a member of the Civil War Reenactments. He was also a member of the Hope Lions Club.

Survivors include his mother, Lori Rook, of Hope; his maternal grandmother, Betty Rook, of Hope; three uncles, Dr. Jim Rook, of Midlothian, Texas, Phil Rook, of Yellville, and Billy Rook, of Hope; one aunt, Tracy Cox, of Lewisville; one special friend, Jennifer Hawthorne, of Hope, and a number of cousins.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 22 at the First Baptist Cburch in Hope with Reverends Eric Barbaree and Wade Hood officiating. Burial will follow in Memory Gardens Cemetery in Hope. Arrangements are by Brazzel/Oakcrest Funeral Home in Hope. Family will receive friends on Monday, February 21, from 6-8 p.m. at Brazzel/Oakcrest Funeral Home in Hope.