| Darlington mourns loss of freshmen 03/01/05
By Alan Riquelmy, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
Vicki
Faulk (right), Sean Wilkinson’s mother, consoles her daughter Christi
Wilkinson as Faye Hewatt, Sean’s grandmother, looks on Monday in
Suwannee, Fla. Phil Sandlin / The Associated Press | Clay McKemie was outgoing. Friends remember him break dancing at a Darlington formal as other students sat by the walls.
Sean Wilkinson liked his coffee and chocolate chip cookies. He had to have them, friends say.
Both of the 14-year-olds will be missed by those who knew them.
McKemie
of Rome and Wilkinson of Acworth were found dead off the coast of
Florida on Monday. The teens were with eight other people who traveled
to Dixie County for a kayaking, canoeing and camping trip.
McKemie’s
parents are Mac and Kristy McKemie of Rome. Wilkinson’s parents are
Vicki Faulk of Acworth and Chris Wilkinson of Waleska.
Lee
Phillips, a junior from Chattanooga, Tenn., almost went on the camping
trip, though he chose to visit with family instead. Darlington is
currently on spring break. Phillips lived in the same dormitory as
Wilkinson and went to Morris Chapel on Darlington’s campus where
mourners gathered Monday.
“I always talked to him when he needed somebody,” Phillips sClay McKemie was to have his first steel drum band performance at the end of March. | aid after the gathering. “He was quiet, but he had a lot of friends. He lived life to the fullest.”
Chris
Tumblin of Rome, a freshman at Darlington, knew McKemie from childhood.
The two had lived on the same street, Tumblin said.
“It’s just not right what happened,” Tumblin said. “They lived a fraction of what they should have.”
Darlington’s
flag stood at half-staff Monday as the school’s community gathered to
pay respects or simply to remember the students.
“Our
desire is that whenever something like this happens is to be as
supportive as we can be,” said Jill Pate, director of personal
counseling at Darlington, during the gathering. “Whenever tragedy
touchesSean Wilkinson was fond of coffee and chocolate chip cookies, friends say. |
our lives, our human response is to reach out to one another. It’s
impossible to make sense of something so nonsensical. You get through
these sorts of things just by loving each other. It’s what people do.”
Claire
Wyatt and Nash Cooper, both freshmen, shared classes with Wilkinson and
describe him as someone who loved to make others laugh.
“Sean loved coffee,” Wyatt said. “He had to have some everyday.”
Cooper agreed. “Sean loved chocolate chip cookies. He had to have cookies and coffee.”
Wyatt and Wilkinson would sing songs together. Once they found CDs from their childhood, songs they hadn’t heard in years.
“We both knew them by heart,” Wyatt said. “Looking back, that’s one of the best memories I have of him.”
Wyatt
wasn’t as close to McKemie, but she remembers a Christmas formal when
everyone was sitting at tables, avoiding the dance floor.
“Clay was the one in the middle of the dance floor just break dancing,” Wyatt said. “He wanted to make it fun for everyone.”
Both
boys participated in Darlington’s recent play, “Anything Goes,” held at
the Rome City Auditorium. They also were members of the school’s Steel
Drum Band. Wilkinson played the double tenor, McKemie the double
seconds.
Jim
Hendrix, interim president of Darlington, echoed the sentiment. “We’re
feeling somewhat helpless and impotent because of the overpowering
sadness. We’re saddened beyond articulation.”
Hendrix
pointed to Monday’s gathering at the chapel as one way the community
pulled together to support itself, saying some form of the gathering
would occur again this coming Sunday as well as Monday, when Darlington
resumes classes.
Darlington Canoeing Tragedy Memorial | 
