Dwayne E. Hughes - Online Memorial Website

Happy birthday Dwayne.  I hope you are having a wonderful birthday in heaven.  I hope you are looking after my mom.  I will always remember that "shit eatin grin" on your face (mom's words) and those wonderful dimples and beautiful eyes. I will always think of you and your family as part of mine.  You are deeply missed - until we meet again - hugs & kisses  

I have not written on here before because there were just too many memories.  When you were three an stuck the bubble gum up your nose and was afraid to tell it and it eventually rotted and your mon (after scrubbing you half to death) took you to the Dr. to see why you stunk.  Geeze when he pulled it out....  The time you stuck the fork in my hand when I reached for a ff off your plate and then swore it was an accident. When you were at the store and you didn't want to go to your mamaw Hughes because all the kids were there and Ross put you up to calling her and telling her that it was storming so bad that I couldn't see to drive you home and she wanted to talk to me and you stuttered that I wasn't there and she laughed and said: "so she is out driving around in that great big storm." But she let you stay.  Of course, you and Art and the Houndurus rat story.  And Chel's memory of the gray suit.  You were at your Mom's when Art died and she said you were crazy upset because you had the suit and didn't know he had another one.  The vidios I have of you sitting in the floor playing with Adam's train that he got for his second birthday (you was about 35 then).  The way you always called me when it snowed to see if I needed anything.  How you always took me out to eat on your birthday for my birthday.  How you were Johnny on the spot if I needed anything.  Of course, you and Ralph, that damn dog ate better than I did.  Lordie , I hope he looks better now.  He was ugly. And all of you guys and Art laughing until you cried, and slapping your legs almost all the time seems like.  So many memories of all you kids. On and on, and on.......

Dwayne

I was sitting here thinking about the 4 wheeler trip we took up in the mountains of Kentucky. It was so peaceful and pretty up there. The wild horses and the big lake. I hope that's what it looks like were you are now. I know that would be your version of heaven and mine too. Hope to see you again some day. Love you

Dwayne,

Today is two years since you died. We miss you and think of you every day. The hardest part of this job is getting through it when I’m frustrated, hurt, mad, and angry. I get through it by knowing your life had meaning. This has been a difficult overwhelming two years. Guess the purpose of life is to matter and make a difference and that you did. I still can’t believe you are gone, it seems as if it has been so very very long. I’m not good at writing what I feel but know that I love you and always will!

Mom

Dwayne

It’s been 2 years some times it feels like yesterday and other times it seems like forever since we talked. This last year has been hard you would not believe all we have went through. It would have been easier for your mom if she would have had your Sunday calls and your summer visit to take her to the garage sales. She always looked forward to that. I have your picture on my desk of you on top of your big black horse with that big grin on your face. You were a person that loved life and lived it. It’s not right that it was cut so short. You touched so many people. When I think back to your funeral and all the people young and old that were there. The elderly that said they did not know what they would do without you checking in on them to make sure they had milk and bread when it snowed . Or the men that worked for you that said you were the best boss they ever had. You were well respected and liked and that says a lot for the way you lived your life. Your mom and I miss you  more than words can say. I know you are in a better place and still riding horses and 4 wheelers and Ralph is at your side. But I still wish you were here instead.

Love you always

Larry

I was thinking about this today. As you all know my dad was a very smart man. He could figure almost anything out, especially with machines. But sometimes, he could do some really, really dumb things. I will never forget this. One time Dad & I had went to Kentucky fourwheeling with some of his friends. We had gotten home really late so we just pulled the truck and trailer up to the house. We still had the fourwheeler strapped to the trailer. The next morning we got up and got in the truck to go unload it at the barn and we got halfway down the big hil at the top of the driveway(we were going in reverse) and he all of a sudden stopped the truck and put the emergency brake on and jumped out of the truck and went to the trailer. I was watching him in the rear-view mirror and he unstrapped the fourwheeler and got back in the truck. I sat there and thought about it and I didnt understand why he would do that but i didnt say anything. So we continued backing down the driveway and all of a sudden the fourwheeler rolled off of the trrailer and flew down the ditch! Dad slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the truck cussing. He was so mad that he made me go down there and try to roll the fourwheeler over myself, but of course i couldnt because it was really heavy. Well he finally calmed down enough to help me and when we were looking at it for damages we noticed there were sticks stuck in the muffler and we sat there and laughed. It was so funny!

Aunt Tressia asked me to light a candle for Dwayne today on his birthday.  He would have been 48 years young today.  It is so sad that his life ended just when it was really getting started.  It should make us all look at our own lives and make sure we have our priorities where they should be.   We can never love, laugh or share ourselves enough.   None of us know when we will be called home.  We need to make sure what we leave behind is the best we could do.   We all  know Dwayne is in a better place waiting on us to join him.  Knowing that though doesn't make it any easier on all the people who love him and miss him.  But we have our memories and they make the weight the loss of him somewhat lighter and help us get thru another day.  This web site/page is a wonderful way to share memories with each other and I am so thankful that Aunt Tressia made it.  It lets me be a little closer to Dwayne by sharing other peoples memories of their lives shared with Dwayne.  I now regret that I didn't make more time to get to know him better.  I ran across this poem and thought it fitting of how Dwayne is still with us even though he is not earth bound any longer.  I hope you enjoy it.  I think it expresses how we all feel.

 

      Light a Candle     

Light a candle for those we mourn.

Into a new life they will be born.

Do not look for them at the gravesite.

They are somewhere else radiating their beautiful light.

They have gone to a new world where there is no darkness, no pain.

Their light and essence will always remain.

Light a candle for those who have left this mortal place.

They are free to travel through time and space.

When we think of them, they are near.

When we sit in a beautiful garden. Their voices we hear.

When we listen to a divine symphony,

We close our eyes, their faces we see.

Light a candle for they have not really gone.

With each flickering flame, in your hearts they will always belong.

 

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write something on your memory page.  It seems like yesterday when we were all kids with not a worry in the world.  How I cherish those days.  Every summer I remember waiting for you guys to come down from Ohio to spend some time with us in Tennessee.  Weather we were at Mamaw's store building forts out of coke crates, having crawdad catching contest, daming up the creek to make ourselves a swimming hole, sitting around telling whoppers and drinking cokes with peanuts in them or you guys would come over to our house and every now and then we'd walk down to the pool and get to go swimming.  I remember the times you guys came to our house in middle Tennesee and we'd read comic books, play cards and just carry on like a bunch of wild kids.  I loved it when we'd get to come to Ohio and visit you guys and your Mom would fix us Cabbage Rolls,  Yummy.  Then we all grew up.  Life got busy and those summer visit didn't happen anymore.  We all just sort of drifted apart.  Now it's too late to make new memories and that breaks my heart.  My only consulation is I know one day they'll be more stories to tell and better times to have when we all meet up again.  Until then, know that I think of you often and even though it makes me sad it also always makes me smile when I remember you, my twinklie eyed, smilie faced, fun to be around cousin.

My little brother never was much of a talker and sort of shy   

One night when we both lived in Texas he I were driving down the road in his blazer and he was more interested in talking to me sitting in the passenger seat than watching where he was going. Well we got to the end of the road at roughly 55 MPH and with no chance of making a turn we ended up out in the middle of a freshly plowed field, narrowly missing a very large rock (about half the size of the truck). After making it back to the pavement his only comment was "Gosh wonder how that happened?" My response "Yeah I wonder" You sure did love telling your stories brother.

YOU CAUGHT ME WHEN I FELL

YOU HELD OUT YOUR HAND

AND SAID COME WALK WITH ME

I COULD FEEL THE WARMTH OF YOUR HAND

YOUR HEART BEATING AND MY HEART BEATING

THEN THEY WERE ONE

YOU EXPRESSED TO ME HOW VERY HAPPY YOU 

WERE, HOW BEAUTIFUL THINGS WERE

AND SOME DAY I WOULD SEE THE BEAUTY

OF ALL YOU WERE SEEING

AS WE WALKED TOGETHER THE PATH

WAS LIKE NONE I HAD EVERY SEEN

THE PATH WAS DIRT BUT VERY SHINNY

LIKE MANY- MANY HAD WALKED THERE BEFORE

THERE WERE TREES BUT THEY WERE MORE LIKE BUSHES

BUT THEY WERE SO BEAUTIFUL ALL COLORS

THE COLORS WERE LIKE NO COLORS I HAVE EVERY SEEN

SMILING YOU SAID YOU HAD TO GO

I WANTED YOU TO STAY BUT I KNEW YOU HAD TO GO

I COULD FEEL YOUR HAND LEAVING MINE AND

OUR FINGER TIPS TOUCHING

YOU WERE SO HAPPY IT BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES

THEN I COULD FEEL YOUR STRENGTH LEAVING MY BODY

DWAYNE THANK YOU FOR MY SPECIAL WALK

UNTIL WE WALK AGAIN I LOVE YOU --MOM

Dwayne

It’s hard to believe it has been a year since that phone call every parent hopes and prays they never get. Some time it seems like it was only yesterday.  It is amazing how many of the candies and memories talk about missing your smiling face or how you made them smile or laugh. You were a special person that people like to be around or new they could count on when they need help. Not a day goes by that your mom and I don’t think about or talk about one of your adventures. We haven’t been able to bring out any of the old videos yet but I’m glad we got them to look back at when we can. It’s just not fair that some one like you would be taken when some many mean people live on. But I guess life just isn’t fair. I hope some day we will all be together again.

 

                                                          Love

                                                              Larry

     Reading all the other memories, really take me back, to some of the best times in my life.  An Dwayne is in all of them.  I remember when Dwayne was locked in the old out-houes for a couple of hours, we never knew for sure who had done it.  Everyone even Dwayne got a laugh out of it.  It just took Dwayne a little long than the rest of us!!! When it was really hot in July we all got to go to Mamaw Marshall's, we would get big old card board boxes and slide down the hot tar on the road.  We never seemed to have a spare minute.  We were always doing something.  I remember the forts we built out of old red coke crates, under the willow tree.  We even set up a stand on the side of the road and sold worms and crawdads to all the fisherman, going down to the lake.  We used the money we made to buy cokes and candy in Mamaw Marshall's store. 

     I wish we could all go back to those times, so we could spend more time with each other.  I sorry that we've all drifter apart, that we can't all go back to Mamaw's and spend time together.  If.  What a small word, that means so much.  If you hadn't been on that road...   At least we all know that you are with God, waiting on the time that we can all be together once again.  Just know until then I miss your smiling face and your deep laugh.  Love always, Terry

I can't seem to pick out just one memory but one of the things I remember the most about Dwayne was his sense of humor...like the rest of us he had the Marshall's dark sense of humor that most people don't understand but us! One thing most people don't understand about us is the way when times seem their darkest we have to find a way to make each other laugh if even only for a minute...When I was young Dwayne would always borrow Dad's grey suit for weddings and such instead of buying one because what was the use in paying good money for something you didn't want to wear anyway and despised having to wear the whole time you did (that's why Dad only had the one until Mom made him surrender and wear the new one she bought him!) anyway they traded that poor grey suit back and forth for years and then came the day of Dad's funeral Dwayne was tore all to pieces because he didn't have a suit to wear except the grey one and was going to buy a new one finally Mom and Peanut told him no one would think anything of it or even know it was Dads, at the end of Dad's funeral of course we were all about to lose our minds grieving and you could tell Dwayne felt uncomfortable. Mom told him he looked handsome and he smiled, looking down he said he still felt bad for wearing the suit Mom, Brandy and I looked at each other and began to laugh "Are you Kidding," we told him, "Dad would have gotten the biggest kick  aggravating you, for wearin' a dead man's suit to his own funeral and then he'd laugh at you and say he got to wear the better looking, new one!" Dwayne started laughing because he knew that was the truth and he always loved a joke even if it was on him. Dwayne & Dad loved to pick at each other almost as much as they loved picking at other people! Just ask Mom! She can tell you were to look for a Hondurous Rat!    I'll also never forget when I was a teenager everyone thought I had this great self-esteem but Dwayne somehow knew I really didn't, he would always make a point of telling me I was pretty and not to ever let anyone make me think I wasn't and believe me ...even though he's your cousin, getting a compliment from a good-lookin' man like that would boost any teenager's self-esteem!!!

So many memories are stored in my mind,

I can think of hours and hours of Ross, you, and I playing in the creek at Mamaw Marshall's.  Going to the lake when we weren't suppose to and Daddy catching us and how we were scared he was going to get hold of our bottoms.  When you all came to visit us in Gordonsville and we put potatoes in the tail pipe of the car so it wouldn't run so you guys wouldn't have to leave.  The hours I sat and waited for you all to get to Mamaw's store while you all drove down from Ohio.  All the games we all use to play together.  Time has flown by since then and it seems the older I get the faster it goes and the harder I reach to try and grab it again!!!  One of the hardest things about life is the lose of friends and family that you care about.  I am so glad that I got to see you when we were celebrating Little Ross's Graduation.  You will always be in my thoughts and one day, we will see each other again.  Until then, you will be missed and there will always be a void in our hearts without you there.  We will always be walking together down that gravel road to Three-Springs boat dock and back again for there are no other people that I had rather share my life time with than my dear cousin friends.

Ronald Lee

As kids, we all thought going to Grandma Marshall's store was the greatest thing. . .no malls or video games back then!  We'd play in the creek and "build" all kinds of forts and houses out of wooden coke cases.  The boys were always catching crawdads and having contests to see who could catch the biggest, or the longest, or the "most unusual".  (Jimmy caught one once with an extra pincher!)  Anyway, one day the guys were having a contest to see who could catch the biggest crawdad.  The girls were catching mud dogs; we were too chicken to pick up the crawdads.  So, after about 3 hours of playing in the creek, the boys compared crawdads and it was obvious that Dwayne had caught the biggest and fattest crawdad of all!  Well, he thought he was King of the Hill, because usually the bigger boys won.  (For some reason they weren't there, that particular day.)  So, after chasing all of us girls around with that big old crawdad, he put it in a minnow bucket and showed it off to all the aunts and uncles, and to Big Grandma and Little Grandma, who all smiled and nodded.  Dwayne showed that big old crawdad to everybody -- all the neighbors, and customers who came into the store.  Well, poor old Ronald Lee was so disappointed that he hadn't won, even though he just kept on grinning.  Ronald Lee had his crawdad in a bucket, too, and was trying to show his crawdad off, as well.   But everyone just kept going on and on about Dwayne's big old crawdad.  Well, after a while, Dwayne started to feel sorry for Ronad Lee, and by the end of the day, instead of saying, "I caught the biggest crawdad", he changed to, "I caught the biggest crawdad, and Ronald Lee caught the longest crawdad."  So, Ronald Lee perked up and started feeling pretty good, himself, and so we all started "oohing" and "ahing" over them both.  We were just little kids, but even then I recognized what a loving gesture that was!  Dwayne always came off as a tough guy, but deep down inside, he had a great big heart. . . kind of reminds me of his Uncle James (Daddy)!

ONE OF THE FUNNIEST MEMORIES OF DWAYNE WAS SEVERAL YEARS AGO. WE WERE IN TENN. FOR A FAMILY REUNION. THERE WAS A WATERMELON EATING CONTEST GOING ON. I BELIEVE DWAYNE WAS THE ONLY ADULT, THE REST WERE KIDS. THEY ALL HAD THEIR WATERMELON IN HAND , READY TO START, WONDERING IF THEY WOULD EACH BE THE WINNER. THEY WAITED FOR SOMEONE TO SAY GO.... THEY ALL STARTED EATING AS FAST AS THEY COULD . BUT SUDDENLY , DWAYNE YELLED I'M DONE . WELL THE KIDS WERE DISAPOINTED , BUT WHAT THEY DIDN'T KNOW WAS THAT DWAYNE HAD TWO PIECES OF WATERMELON , HE HAD THE ONE THAT THEY ALL STARTED OUT WITH AND THEN HE HAD JUST A RIND BEHIND HIS BACK THAT NO ONE COULD SEE. ONLY AFTER TAKING A FEW BITES OF THE ONE , HE SWITCHED HANDS AND PRESENTED THE EMPTY ONE. EVERYBODY GOT THE BIGGEST KICK OUT OF IT.  IT WAS PRETTY FUNNY AND DWAYNE JUST LAUGHED AND LAUGHED . THOUGHT HE WAS PRETTY CLEVER. WHAT A GOOD DAY THAT WAS..

In Loving Memory

Dwayne Hughes

1960-2007

 

Thanks for the Love, Laughter and

Joy you brought to our lives. We will

Miss and love you forever. You were

A person with a big smile and a kind

word. You have hay fields to mow, four

wheels and horses to ride and ride you

will. You had good times and bad times

and just plain break even times. This

was to have been a good time, you

had found true happiness and were

 looking forward to your wedding you

were one of those rare people who ask

“How are you” and then waited for

The answer. You will be missed by all.

Love you!

Mom, Larry, Deresa, &Ross