Kevin Gause

Kevin was such an awesome kid!  He was very healthy, involved in sports and loved his family and friends.  On Dec 31st 2008 around 12:10pm, he passed away.  He was 12 yrs old, just shy of his 13th birthday on Feb 28th.  Kev hung himself in his bedroom. The day was a regular day.  After a typical argument between us, over locking my garage door,  I took my daughter to ride her bike in the driveway.  During that argument, he was mad at me and threatened to kill himself...with shoelaces.  He has said that many times and I always reacted, except this one time.  I didn't take him seriously.  I told him to go watch TV and I'll be right back.  When I came back, I was locked out of my house for about 2 hours until my husband came home from work to let me in.  I never thought that he would actually do it.  During that time, at first I thought he was watching me from a window, laughing at me trying to get in (which he has done in the past). I then thought Kev went for a walk or went to the mall.  When I finally got into my house I checked his room and at first did not see him.  I was very nervous.  I heard a voice telling me to go all the way in... so I did.  I saw him hanging on his closet door at the end of his bed.  The shoelaces were just under his chin, not around his neck.  His blood flow to his brain was blocked.  He passed out within a few seconds and died within a few minutes.  I didn't think he'd do it, and I know he thought I would find him.  It looked like he was standing on something and he fell off accidentally.  I know he was just trying to scare me.  He wanted to just pretend to do it so when I walked in, he would get a reaction.  It didn't turn out to be pretend.  

Monica Wright
Kevin's Mother