Mary Minnette Sappington Mother of an Angel
When I was visiting the Mothers of an Angel Friendship Network last week, I visited Clovis East High School on the first day of the 2012-2013 school year with Mary Minnette Sappington. Mary’s daughter Kim Hamilton is one of the students honored on the wall. Before Mary and I drove to Clovis East, we met at another memorial near the Highway 180 overpass. Mary feels especially connected to this location since it was the last place where Kimberly was alive.
Mary is a member of the support group Mother of an Angel Friendship Network. On Monday August 20, 2012, I photographed Mary, Mary’s son and Martha Tessmer. Martha organized the support group and this is my fourth year photographing the families. Today is also Mary’s birthday.
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NOTE: On December 3rd, as I was scrolling through my photo archive of Mary and other mothers, I remembered a recent online conversation between Mary and a few mothers. I contacted Mary and asked her to post comments below about safety changes for state highway workers in California.
Happy Birthday Mary Minnette Sappington… wanted you to know I was still thinking about you.
Thank you!! Loves and hugs!
You are welcome Mary. I treasure my time with you and the other mothers. Tell your son I said hello too.
Will do…he’s thinking bout something stupid like moving to SLO…where’s his family? Friend him on FB Ryan Border..,the kid taking a pic of himself in the mirror…you’ll see him…
Mary,
I just added a note to my original post. Am I correct that the State of California has changed safety requirements for workers known as “flaggers?”
Yeah, the safety rules for flaggers have changed and the state requires them to have more training than the 8 hours they were required to have by the ATSSA (American Traffic Safety Services Association). http://www.atssa.com California has implemented their own rules into that training due to Kimberly’s accident..pretty cool huh?
Mary,
It is pretty cool to see the changes. Of course it is horrible something bad happened, but I am glad that your group also helps motivate people to take action.
It is easy to count the number of people who have died from traffic accidents or other accidents. It is much more difficult to count the number of deaths that have been prevented… and even more difficult TO FEEL the number prevented, but you have helped prevent unnecessary tragedies.
Thank you,
BF
Thank you Bryan…:). Kimberly left the earth the same way she came in…a blessing…:). The new Flaggers Manuel is located at http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/construc/flagging/flaggerhandbook2007.pdf. It was put out May 2007, three years after the accident.
Thank younagain Bryan for all you do!
The new Flaggers Manuel was implemented in May of 2007, three years after Kimmy’s death…it can be read at http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/construc/flagging/flaggerhandbook2007.pdf