Harry Drake, site supervisor in Kopperston, is also a minister.  Back in April, I arrived in Kopperston, and the first thing I asked Harry is if his wife had reached him — there was a death in his home community and he was needed to do a funeral on Friday.  I had arranged for another supervisor to work with his group so he could leave.  Harry had gotten the message and told me he was also doing a funeral that night there in Kopperston.  What?  And the story unfolded ...

The Friday night before, police found the body of a young man in the dug out of the ball field beside the church, an apparent overdose.  He had just gotten out of prison (drug charges) and Dee, whose house the mission team from Chippewa, Pennsylvania, was working on, had been planning to take him to the Army recruiter that very week.  He had hopes of changing his life around.

Background of Dee

Dee is in her 40's, has a 24 year old son, a 20 year old and a 14 year old.  She is a home health care giver and has struggled with her own addictions; she is a widow and a divorcee. Her house is home to every stray kid in the coal camp who calls her Mom.  Her door never locks because she never knows who might need her couch.  She takes in the high, the drunk, the kicked-out-of-home kids, the physically abused by their parents kids and the kids who just hang out with her kids — boys or girls.  Her house is sort of the “island of misfit kids.”  Her heart is huge.  

Now, when David's body was found, all of the youth who knew him gathered at Dee's for comfort and crying.  David's mother had refused to allow any of them to go to the funeral home or to the funeral.  She held them responsible — bad friends.  But they needed a place to grieve, and to find closure.  So the mission group offered to help the friends with a memorial service for him in the ball field where he was found.