summarized in the July 14 issue of the Rappahannock

summarized in the July 14 issue of the Rappahannock News in a mere two inch item found on page A3 topping the local crime report under the headline of Traffic fatality in county

The brevity and placement of coverage of our son’s death was terribly hurtful and has added to our sorrow and slowed our healing process. However, the portion of the news item that we cannot tolerate and must negate on Chris’s behalf was the statement insinuating that alcohol was a cause of the accident.

We cannot find anyone who claims to have made this statement which in our minds seems totally unlikely. The statement sullies his reputation and paints an unfair last impression of Chris’s life and the circumstances of his death. It is true that Chris had in the past done some social drinking. At this point in time, however, he was doing everything possible to return his body to health. Also, he was an active “Bom Again Christian” who viewed his body with utmost respect and as a gift from God.

On the day of his death he had been visiting his lovely girlfriend, Kathy, in New Market. His plans were to stop on Skyline Drive, on the drive home, to ride his bfke and sit and read awhile, not the actions of one on a drinking spree! We know that on his way home he had taken time to stop and chat with an elderly friend, again not the actions of one out drinking.

We shall never know what caused him to momentarily swerve to his death. Perhaps an animal crossed the road distracting him. What we do know is he died honorably on a dark road in his beloved Rappahannock County on a summer night in July 1999. There was no evidence to indicate that he was speeding.

In the damaged remains of his pickup were found his bicycle, his Holy Bible and a favorite book of reflective poems titled, “The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach.

Please help us honor his memory fairly and properly and allow him to rest in the peace he so greatly deserves.

Raymond Hitt

Aloha L. Hitt

Castleton