Woodrow talked incessantly about their dream house -- somewhere out in the country, with a fence. Maybe a dog. Plenty of room for the kids to play. It'd have a big yard. Or maybe not. Lots of grass to cut with a big yard.

But a year ago, those dreams vanished in less time than it takes to dream of a country cabin.

"I miss him," Tina Nelson says of her husband, Woodrow. "I was thinking ya'll were going to call me and say he's coming back."

But Woodrow isn't coming back.

It was just after 6 a.m. on March 25, 2006. Woodrow was driving Tina to her job at Wal-mart. The couple were traveling on Chestnut Street, talking again about their dream home.

Police say that as the Nelsons traveled a short distance past the intersection with U.S. Highway 21, a Jeep swerved across the four-lane roadway, striking Woodrow and Tina's Chevrolet Blazer head-on. At 32 years old, Woodrow was dead.

During the crash, Tina was thrown from their vehicle. For the next several months, she would lay in a coma at Palmetto-Richland Memorial Hospital not knowing her husband was gone.

When she awoke from the coma in November, her motor skills were gone. While she can manage a few sentences at a time today, Tina still can't walk nor sit up for very long.

But, as if that weren't enough, her family had to tell her the news about Woodrow.

"I was very hurt, I couldn't believe it," Tina says of that moment of realization. "It took three nurses, they told me that Woodrow is dead. I said, 'Are you sure Woodrow's left?' They said, 'Yeah.'

"I still can't believe it."

"He's going to always be in your heart," Tina's mother, Junell Johnson, said to her daughter. "He's never going to leave your heart."

Woodrow and Tina met when they were both students at Denmark Technical College on Feb. 16, 1992. Tina liked his personality, a light-hearted, joking kind of person who was always uplifting.

When they dated, they'd go to the movies or out to dinner. Their favorite restaurant became Fatz Cafe. Or maybe Ryan's. Either one, she said.

Woodrow liked to go bowling and to get out for an occasional game of golf. Tina would go watch, but she'd rather go bowling.

"No, no golfing. It was all bowling" for her, she said. "I liked to bowl. He liked to bowl."

Johnson said she like the well-mannered young man she saw in Woodrow, who'd stop by her home and make himself at home as well. Woodrow, she said, had no problem coming in to find out what Mama Johnson was cooking, especially if it was fried chicken.

"And macaroni," Johnson said. "He loved macaroni."

The couple eventually married on March 8, 1996. They would go on to have two sons, Justin and Tony, who Woodrow would take to Chuck E. Cheese's or the water park in Orangeburg. Sometimes, the boys would enjoy a special treat when the family would travel to Carowinds.

But then there were times spent as a family around the house. One of Woodrow's favorite times with his family would be grilling burgers outside.

"Or chicken," Tina said.

But the part-time barber and full-time employee at Media Security Services wanted more for his family. They rented a nice mobile home just north of Orangeburg off Five Chop Road. But Woodrow wanted to give his family a house, a real house, with a yard and space for a swing set.

On March 24, he left work at Media with a surprise for his family. He was bringing home a fruit pizza, which he had recently discovered he quite enjoyed. Hopefully, Tina and the boys would as well.

The following morning, the Nelsons arose early to go to work. Woodrow called the barber shop to say he'd be a little late but not to give up on him. He had to take Tina to work, and he'd be right there.

"Next thing, I get a phone call telling me he's dead," The Rev. Roderick Davenport, owner of Right Touch Barbershop, said in an interview not long after the collision.

A car crossed the median or something. The story wasn't clear initially. But Woodrow was dead and Tina lay in a coma.

The driver of a third vehicle struck during the crash was not seriously injured, police said.

Michael Lee Clemons, 28, of Neeses was charged with one count of DUI resulting in death and one count of DUI resulting in bodily harm.

Of Clemons, Johnson said, "He should not be coming out" of jail.

"You don't want to know what I think," Woodrow's employer, Bill Cook, said. "With me, it's not just the fact that he worked for me. We were buddies. I've never cried at anyone's passing, but at this ..."

Clemons' case is still pending.

Meantime, Tony and Justin, now 10 and 7, respectively, still have a hard time dealing with the loss of their dad.

Woodrow's mother and father, Andrew and Verdell Nelson, of Woodrow's hometown of Georgetown, say there's a void in their lives that can't be replaced.

"I look at his picture and talk to him," Verdell Nelson said in a trembling voice. "I'm thinking about being in church this weekend and I think that will help a little bit."

Tina still goes through therapy. Although she's made tremendous strides, she will go through physical therapy for the next two years.

A therapist comes each week to Johnson's home where Tina and the boys now reside. Their mobile home in Orangeburg was burglarized while the 33-year-old lay in a coma. Everything was taken.

With the warmer weather of spring, Johnson thought Tina would like to be pushed outdoors, enjoy some sunshine.

"We sat her on the porch for a few minutes," Johnson said. "But neighborhood kids began saying things about 'the lady sitting on the porch crying.' And the boys, they didn't want other kids saying things about her."

And, Woodrow, he rests in a place called Morning Glory Cemetery, which is in Georgetown. Miles from his sweetheart and children, he waits alone for them to join him at their country cabin now being built in Heaven.

"I miss Woodrow," Tina says simply.

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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