United Local High School remembers
HANOVERTON — Bob Sommers knelt, placed the roots of a red flower into the ground and gently used his hands to cup soil over and around them. Then he stood, wiped dirt from his hands, and thought about the worst day of his life.
It was nearly 10 years ago, when he received the gut-wrenching news that his 15-year-old son, Derek, was killed in an automobile accident. “It happened right up the road,” said Sommers, pointing north toward state Route 9. “About a mile from here.”
The flower he’d planted was in memory of Derek, who was a sophomore at United Local High School when he died in the Nov. 12, 1997, accident. The school has a memorial garden outside the entrance to its auditorium, where flowers and shrubbery have been planted in memory of Derek and 28 other pupils who died over the years while enrolled there.
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