![]() There was the time Terry got a haircut, went to school the next day and was taunted. "I just tried to make him stronger, you know, let that stuff go, take it as a grain of salt, walk away, that kind of thing," Badger said. Terry and Robyn said they knew their son was being bullied. The Badgers are living with Terry's grandparents, Terry and Mary Badger, as they look for a new home. That house, it once was filled with so much happiness. Terry and Robyn will never go back to live in that house, the white house with a green and yellow bird feeder hanging on a tree in the front yard and a creek flowing in the back, a creek where Terry loved to set minnow traps and one day came home with a family of snakes. But now they have one horrific memory, a memory they are fighting to keep from overshadowing all the good ones. The Badgers had so many hopes and dreams for their only son. Terry was looking forward to the upcoming season playing for Indiana Nitro Gold, the top travel team in the Westfield organization's 13U age division. He had too many championship trophies to count, too many to fit on the shelves in his bedroom. He signed and saved every one of those balls. 400 last season, including a home run that sailed more than 300 feet. He was a third baseman and pitcher who could throw 71 miles an hour and who batted. There had been talk in Covington about moving Terry up to the varsity team this spring as a seventh grader, said his grandpa, the eldest Terry Badger. He was starting to look like a young man. Robyn's blanket is covered with a massive photo of her and Terry at a baseball tournament last season. They can't sleep at night, their loss is still so raw and the tears are hard to stop.īadger's quilt is crafted from jerseys that Terry wore, from the time he stepped onto a baseball field at the age of 2. They are sitting, talking about their son with blankets draped over them. ![]() Terry and Robyn Badger are sitting on a couch holding hands, wearing red T-shirts with the words "Hittin Dingers TB3 44," the nickname and number for Terry. "I'm still trying to wake up from a nightmare." 'It just overtook him' "And there was nothing I could do," Badger said. Terry Alan Badger III was dead by suicide, five months short of his fourteenth birthday. He pulled into the driveway of his Covington home and he saw the police officer standing on the porch with tears streaming down his face. "The only way I knew what happened,” he said, ”was the city cop got on the phone and he told me."īadger ran out of work and sped toward his house. Then she called Terry's dad at work.Īll Badger heard was Robyn shrieking and screaming words he couldn't understand. But Robyn called 911 anyway, hysterical and screaming. She knew there was "absolutely, not a chance" that the call to 911 would save her son's life. ," Robyn said, unable to say the words, "what I saw." Minutes later, Robyn got home from the gas station and walked into Terry's room. "You can thank (Terry listed his bullies' names) for this." Then Terry turned off the video and put his phone down. "I get picked on every (single) day and I hate my life," Terry said in the video. There were kids at Covington Middle School, the family alleges, who bullied Terry every day, asking if he shopped at Goodwill, calling him a "fatass," making fun of his shoes, laughing at his haircut, telling him he was worthless. Terry believed, in those moments, his life wasn't worth living. His parents found that out when they watched the video Terry recorded just after 3 p.m. He wasn't thinking about texting his dad after school. to practice batting with his dad and some friends.īut Terry wasn't really thinking about batting practice or homework on that car ride home, his parents later found out. He talked like he always talked, about his plans to get his homework done so he could go to the baseball field at 4:30 p.m. On the car ride home, Terry had acted like he always acted, smiling, happy, nothing out of the ordinary, Robyn said. She had no reason to think she shouldn't leave Terry alone. ![]() then left for a quick run to the gas station. His mom, Robyn, had dropped him off just after 3 p.m. His dad got the morning message from Terry on March 6. Thirteen-year-old Terry Badger III sent those words, or some variation of them, every single afternoon to his dad at work, just like the morning messages Terry sent without fail that said, "I'm up. On the afternoon of the worst day of Terry Badger II's life, the text message from his son never came. This story explores suicide, including a mother and father's struggle after their 13-year-old son took his life. If you are at risk, please stop here and contact 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for support.ĬOVINGTON, Ind. Watch Video: Indiana teen Terry Badger III died by suicide.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |