By Doug Clark

Assistant Editor

Valentine’s Day was a day that Bruce Holder loved to celebrate.

“He loved to collect gorillas and dragons,” said his mother Brenda. “He has two big gorillas at home, and one with a flower in it ...”

Sunday, like every other day, his mother and a host of friends placed some Valentine’s Day presents along the side of the road on the spot where Bruce was killed on Oct. 5, 2009, as he drove his scooter home from work after completing second shift at Walmart around 12:10 a.m. Holder was hit from behind on U.S. 421 by 52-year-old David Wemyss. The force of the collision threw Holder from his scooter some 185 feet from the initial point of impact.

Wemyss was subsequently charged with driving while impaired, failure to reduce speed, felony hit and run (injury) and misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. Since the incident, Wemyss has had three court dates pushed back. His next trial date, according to the North Carolina Court System, is scheduled for March 5.

Wemyss is currently out on bond.

It is bitter pill that Brenda Holder said is difficult to swallow and a stunning reality that is as stinging as a pinprick four months later.

“It is never out of my mind — it seems that all I can do is cry,” his mother said.

Bruce had traveled that same road a year and a half and never had any other incident while riding his scooter. The morning of his death had been no different.

“He worked from 2 until 11 p.m. that night,” remembers Brenda. “He stopped at the store to get a Mountain Dew and started for home this way, just like he always did.”

Although he was killed just after midnight, Brenda remembers hearing a knock on her door later in the morning around 6:30 a.m.

“The trooper showed up at the house that morning,” she said. “He said that he was there about Bruce Holder.”

Thinking that Bruce was in bed, Brenda never thought for a moment that the trooper was there to deliver the heart-breaking news that her only son had actually been killed.

“He told me that there had been an accident,” she recalls fighting back the tears, pain etched across her face. “I asked what hospital was he at. The man looked at me and said, point blank, ‘he is not at a hospital, he’s dead.’ I was in shock.”

Instead of celebrating her birthday that day, she was planning her son’s funeral.

“Everybody thought the world of Bruce,” she said. “He has always been a great kid. His daddy died when he was young, and he was just a loving kid. He had always been the type of person who would give you the shirt off of his back ... He was the type of person that every mother would want as a son. Nobody had a bad word to say about Bruce. He didn’t do drugs, he didn’t drink, other than having a beer with a friend. But he would do anything for anyone who needed it.”

Which makes his senseless death that much harder to deal with, she said. The road where his body was found is lined with ribbons, balloons, cards and hand-written notes, along with posters with his favorite things on it; there are even some pinwheels that were placed in his honor.

As Brenda walks along the bevy of tributes to her son, her eyes well with tears. Her emotions are bare as she goes from tears to anger toward the man she believes responsible for killing her son.

“I hope that he is happy,” she said. “He didn’t destroy one life, he destroyed two. I come out here every day and I plan on continuing to come out here too. Some days I just feel like I can’t go on. I mean, how can you just take someone’s life like that and not care? Bruce died out here on this cold road, alone. It wasn’t his fault.”

In the next instant, Brenda Holder questions why the suspect in her son’s death wasn’t charged more harshly and why the man she believes killed him is walking free today.

“What makes it worse is the charges they gave him,” she said. “It is not right. His life is not better than my son’s life. I mean before we even got over to (identify him), he was already out of jail on the streets. What kind of sense does that make? What is the excuse for him to go a mile and a half after the incident? He went 185 feet after ... why?”

Bruce’s aunt, Noreen Nickerson, agrees, “I miss him,” she said. “I want them to know that when he said something, he did it. And it is not right that this man is out on the street.”

Close friend Rhonda Konig said the justice system needs to be analyzed for allowing Weymss to be free.

“It is disgusting, really,” she said flatly. “It is unjustified for him to be out enjoying things, enjoying family. Bruce was the best friend anybody could ask for, and he didn’t deserve this. I want people to know that the world lost one of its best people. He had the best heart and was a good man. This world has suffered a loss because people like him are very hard to come by.”

“Something needs to be done about this,” adds Holder. “My son has been gone for four months and this man is out there walking the streets. I am sure that he got a chance to enjoy Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s. All those holidays he got to spend with his family. We didn’t. My son didn’t do nothing wrong. He was on his way home from work. He was not one of these kids who was hanging around, he was working, trying to make a living, and because this guy was out of it and out of control behind the wheel, my son lost his life. I don’t call it an accident. What is wrong with our justice system that he is out there walking the streets and my son is dead? I just don’t get it.”

Ms. Holder and her support group said that if and when, Weymss goes to trial, they will be there to make sure Bruce is represented.

“I want people to remember this; I want people to know what he has done,” Holder said. “ I don’t want this to be swept under the carpet and when it goes to trial, I will be there every day — you can count on it.”

While walking past the hundreds of flags, the gorilla and frog helium balloons, Holder notices that a portion of a sign has been broken off and trampled.

“Why would somebody do that?,” she asks. “I just don’t understand it. I mean, if you don’t like what we are putting up here, that is one thing, but to take the time to stop and destroy it, why would someone do that? This is in memory of my son ... This is all I have left (to come out here) and remember him. Why would someone do this?”

After taking care of the destroyed portion of the sign, Ms. Holder places her hand on a handwritten card that is taped on a poster-sized cut out that includes handwritten messages and a blown-up photo of Bruce with a big smile across his face.

“I really appreciate all of the support that I have gotten,” she said. “These are the things that have been getting me through. There have been times, and I am not going to lie to you, where it has been very difficult. But it is nice to come out here and pay tribute to my son ...”

One day, Holder said, she would like to start a fund in memory of Bruce to help other grieving families that have had similar tragedies.

“It is something that I would like to do to keep his memory alive,” she said. “He was a giving person and it seems like it is the right thing to do.”

The court date against Weymss is still pending.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.