Wright Has Endured Her Share of Heartache

Ann Wright can be forgiven if she celebrates the beginning of the new year somewhat more joyously than most people.
That's because she's endured more than her share of heartache in the month of December. Not only did she lose her son Ricky in the crash of the DC-9 airliner in Gander, Newfoundland, Dec. 12, 1985, but her younger brother was killed in an auto accident three days before his 20th birthday on a Northwest Florida highway on Dec. 15, 1962. Her father had died a year earlier and her first husband was killed in Korea.
Mrs. Wright was more of a mother than a sister to her brother. Thirty years after his death and seven years after losing her son, this mother's love is still very much alive.
"It is a very bad time of the year for me," she said. "Time does make it easier to deal with, but it doesn't take any of the hurt away. This time of year, you can't help but think about it."
She said there was a special relationship with Ricky, because he had dyslexia. When the other students and teachers would belittle him, he would often rely on his mother for emotional support.
Mrs. Wright thinks the fact that she never saw the body of her son or her brother has made it tougher to accept,
"I know some people will think I'm crazy, but the phone can ring and I will think it's Ricky in my mind for a moment," she said. "It's very hard for us mothers to give that child up. My brother's been dead 30 years and there are still times I'll think he's going to come by."
She is the mother of seven children. In addition to Corporal Wright, there are also Teresa Nichols of Andalusia, Dianne Barody of Pace, Fla., Louise George of Dothan, Walter R. Wright of Waynesville, Mo., William D. Wright of Ozark, and Billy Joe Wright, who lives next door to his parents.
Mrs. Wright says some things have helped her, such as the Gander Wall she and husband Walter erected in the memory of their son and his fellow 247 soldiers who died in the Gander crash.
The Wrights also visited the crash site and traveled throughout the country trying to get a bill passed that would give soldiers an option in not boarding an aircraft they may feel is unsafe.
Mrs. Wright developed a close relationship with another mother of one of the deceased soldiers - Margaret Ferguson of Kingsport, Tenn.
Her and Buddy Ferguson's son Mark was Ricky Wright's friend since going through basic training together. After the crash, Mrs. Wright contacted Mrs. Ferguson to find out if her son was also on the plane.
"They were roommates through basic and AIT," Mrs. Wright said. "They both went to Fort Campbell together, were in the same unit, went to Sinai. They came back together and they got killed together. They were friends throughout their military careers."
Their mothers followed their example. The friendship that was born out of the worst nightmare a parent could have has grown into something more. Mrs. Wright says she thinks of Mrs. Ferguson as a sister.
"Since then, we've been in constant contact with them," Mrs. Wright said. "They come down three or four times a year. She'll call me and we'll talk for hours. When we visit my husband's family in Tennessee, we'll stop and see them.
"We just share a lot. We don't have to talk about the crash. We don't necessarily have to talk about Mark or Ricky. We can talk about anything."
The government has closed its books on the investigation of the Gander crash for 70 years, but loving mothers like Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Ferguson haven't given up on their search for answers. They still want to know why and how it happened. They also want to ensure that it never happens again.
"Nobody wants to pry into it," Mrs. Wright said. "Nobody wants to find out what happened to that plane. Why did that plane go down? We know there was something wrong. There was a lot of ammo on that plane that wasn't supposed to be there.
"Being a military family, we know you're not supposed to ship ammo on a plane with troops. And when we were in Newfoundland, we heard some people who went to the crash site saying they couldn't have gotten in there, if there had been any survivors, because of all the ammo going off.
"We will never give up, as long as there are some of the families still living. There's always going to be a probe going on. The day I buried my son, I stood at his grave and swore I'd never rest until I found out what happened to him," Mrs. Wright said.
For a long time, Mrs. Wright used her efforts working with other families, as well as her own, to avoid thinking about her loss. This year, she believes she has begun to face her son's death without denial.
"A lot of people don't want to talk about it," she said. "I think that's terrible because burying your head in the sand like an ostrich isn't going to change the fact that they're gone. We can't bring them back, but we can look at the cause of the crash and make sure if it's terrorism, that we put better security on there.
"If it was a bad plane, we can have better planes for our boys to ride on. If it was anything like that, we can counteract whatever we find out. What we can't understand is why our government would seal the records on that plane crash for 70 years. My grandchildren will be old and gray. But you don't give up hope as long as there is any hope at all."

Wiregrass' Longest Surviving Heart Recipient Loses Her Fight

When thinking of Vicky Love, those closest to her remember the young woman lovingly caressing her miniature Pomeranian B.B., the one who tirelessly spoke out for organ donation, and who enjoyed her last Christmas with her family in Dothan.
And when you think of her many health problems, don’t forget about her courage.
Love, the longest-living heart recipient in the Wiregrass, died in her Dothan home early Thursday morning. She was 38.
Her father Gerald likes to think about that courage and the relationship with his daughter that grew into a close friendship.
“This kid didn’t have a whole lot of fear about her,” he said. “After she got cancer, I told her that her brother Steve said she was the most courageous person he’d ever known.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Daddy, courage is when you go on and do what you know absolutely has to be done without any doubt when you’re absolutely scared to death.’
“And she would do things when she was so scared she’d be shaking, but she’d do it anyhow. Vicky just had tremendous will and faith.”
Visitation is scheduled for 6-9 tonight at Byrd Funeral Home, and the service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home.
After a seven-year battle with cardiomyopathy, Love received her heart transplant at the age of 25 in Marcy 1985 at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif. Cardiomyopathy is an enlargement of the heart muscle caused by an infection.
Love was initially given a 20 percent chance to live 10 years. She lived almost 14 years, surviving bouts with tumor skin cancer, a ruptured disk, and other problems until she contracted the extremely rare merkle cell cancer. Love was one of only two Alabamians diagnosed with merkle cell.
The longest-living heart transplant recipients at the University of Alabama Medical Center have survived for 17 years, said April Crosswy, a clinical research analyst in the UAB Cardiac Transplant Research Office.
“I’ve known her since she was a child,” said Gloria Stapler, who has worked with Love’s father at Southeast Alabama Youth Services for more than 25 years. “She was always a very happy child – artistic, creative and caring. Even in the midst of all she’s been through, she was such a courageous person and an inspiration to many people.
“I saw her as early as last week at (Flowers Hospital), and she knew it was only a matter of time. But she was talking about heaven and what she would do when she got there, about having a party and the people up there she would invite. That’s what I’m picturing: her having a big party today.”
Teresa Culpepper, a close friend since she met Love in 1991 at Premier Athletic Club, likes to remember some of the many times they just had fun together.
They planned to write a book together, and Culpepper said she still plans to combine her notes with what the poems and other writings Love left behind on her computer.
“We were kind of like partners in crime,” Culpepper said. “I’m an only child, and she was pretty much a sister to me. The first time we were partners in crime, we went down to the beach and talked about girl things, reminisced about when we were kids and wish we had known each other when we were growing up.
“I took her to Birmingham for a biopsy, and doctors suggested that she drink one beer before the biopsy, and we bought some liquor and had a little more fun than what they had requested. It was not hard for them to take that biopsy.
“Anytime we were in the dumps, we’d call each other and hop in the car and start driving.”
Even in the pain of her last days, Love was still thinking of the people she loved. Her father said she asked that her friends be told to get their own lives straightened out, so she’d see them in heaven. Somehow, she found the strength to write one last message on her laptop computer in the last week of her life.
In the past year, Love spent much of her time on the Internet with her home page, “Victoria’s Veil.” On her site, which can be accessed at www.angelfire.com/md/prayerMat, Love left a message that could serve as the legacy of her life when she explained how she came up with the title of her page.
“That I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, that I will have given help to those who were in need, and that I will have left the earth a better place for what I’ve done and who I’ve been.
“I truly had the meaning of the veil of love as my heritage name, but also as a veil that God has surrounded and engulfed me in to love, protect, strengthen and guide, also. . . He in His grace and love has carried me when I could not walk and led me when I could not choose.
“Once again, I have been brought to His table and kneel at His feet and ask, ‘Lord, where do I go?’”