Wade Fleming
To whom it may concern; I came across your website and wanted to submit the following information for Wade Fleming to be included on your memorial page. What a tragic loss. Wade was a very good friend of mine and he is missed terribly. He touched so many lives John S. LaRose |
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The following is an article that was run in the Sentinel on October 25,
2005. The motorcyclist who died in Holy Spirit Hospital Friday morning after a traffic collision was an emergency room medical technician who had just finished a 12-hour shift. Wade L. Fleming, 42, died from his injuries in Holy Spirit’s emergency room soon after the 3:50 a.m. crash. A Harrisburg man was charged Monday with drunken vehicular homicide for the hit-and-run collision. Kevin Scott Curry, 32, of the 3300 block of Brookfield Road, is accused of colliding with Fleming’s motorcycle at the intersection of Country Club Road and the Camp Hill Bypass. Coworkers devastated "Taking care of a coworker — it’s just one of those things you never want to do," hospital spokeswoman Lori Moran says. She says Fleming’s coworkers "just can’t say enough nice things about him," she says. And they are still plagued with the "what-ifs." "He was supposed to get off at 11 p.m.," Moran says, "but, as usual, he volunteered to stay later.... Up until the end he was just a very giving person." Moran has fielded calls from Fleming’s family, wanting to make sure his coworkers can attend Wednesday’s viewing. "(His wife) is calling, offering to extend the viewing so (hospital workers) can attend," she says. "It was unbelievable." Police begin search When police arrived on the scene Friday morning, they learned that the badly injured biker was already en route to Holy Spirit Hospital, where he had worked as an emergency room technician since 2002. Police say the car that hit Fleming had vanished. After analyzing pieces of wreckage left at the scene, Officer Warren Cornelious alerted other officers to be on the lookout for a red Chevrolet with damage to its front driver’s side bumper. A car with that description was found several hours later at the intersection of North 19th and Lincoln streets, some 10 blocks from the hospital. A registration check on the car led police to a home across the river where, they say in arrest documents, the owner of the car was staying. But, before police from Camp Hill and Susquehanna Township could arrive, 911 dispatchers got another call: A man claiming to have been in a hit-and-run accident in the Enola area had cut his arm and needed help. "This officer responded... and met with the suspect, Kevin Scott Curry, who advised that he was driving the vehicle," Cornelious says in arrest documents. Curry told police he was waiting at a red light and, after it turned green, drove through the intersection where he was hit by Fleming’s motorcycle. Curry told police he was in shock from the wreck and kept driving before eventually pulling over and abandoning the car at 19th and Lincoln. Police say he initially denied drinking any alcohol but later changed his story and claimed to have had one glass of wine at 9 the night before. Arrest documents say when hospital officials performed a blood alcohol test at 10:16 a.m. — some six-and-a-half hours after the accident — Curry had a BAC of .09 percent, which is just over the .08 legal driving limit. He has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, DUI, homicide by vehicle, homicide by vehicle while intoxicated, causing an accident involving death, causing an accident to an attended vehicle, and failure to give information and render aid at the scene of a crash. Wade Fleming loved to give to others In the four days since an early morning wreck claimed the life of her 42-year-old husband, Janet Fleming has heard countless well-wishers telling her what she already knew — that Wade L. Fleming "was a very giving man." The lifelong York County resident led a life that touched an uncountable many. For the last five years, he spent much of his time in and around Holy Spirit Hospital near Camp Hill, working first as an EMT with West Shore Regional Ambulance Co. and, starting in 2002, as a medical technician in the hospital’s emergency room. Janet Fleming says it wasn’t unusual for him to call home and ask her, the mother of six, if he could work a bit later. "It was always, like, well, the kids are in bed, go ahead," she says. "What’s an extra couple hours — it’s no big deal." That’s why it was no surprise to Janet Fleming when her husband didn’t start home at 11 p.m. Thursday. She would find out later that, as he had done so many times before, Wade Fleming had stayed on an extra four hours "to help out," as hospital spokeswoman Lori Moran recalls. He died in a motorcycle wreck on the way home. Devoted to family At the hospital, Moran says people can’t say enough good things about Wade Fleming, about how kind he was and how he was "an extremely dedicated employee." But he was much more than that. She remembers the years they dated when she, as a New Jersey native working as pharmacy technician, fell in love with a butcher at the York grocer where they worked. Their "first date," though she didn’t know it at the time, was a work-sponsored picnic at Knoebel’s Grove Amusement Park in Elysburg. Janet Fleming remembers following him there because she didn’t know the way and, once at the park, just having so much fun together. But even more than the early years, Janet Fleming remembers his devotion to his five boys and one girl. "My (17-year-old) daughter says she really cherished the intense biblical conversations they had," she says, "and he just loved wrestling with the boys," whose ages range from 20 to just under 1 year. A motorcycle enthusiast and avid outdoorsman, Wade Fleming was a man’s man. But "he didn’t watch football, he didn’t hunt, he didn’t fish," she says He enjoyed horses and, especially, breaking in the obstinate ones, such as the Clydesdale mix he owned. Religion important to him Fleming was active in both Christ Community Church in Camp Hill and New Fairview Church of the Brethren in York. He missed few services despite shifts that frequently went into the early morning hours. Twice a month, Janet Fleming recalls, he would get home as late as 4 a.m. only to get up at 7 a.m. to work at CCC’s nursery while she and others had their "Moms’ Club." He also believed in giving — contributing more than 16 gallons of blood, 1,000 hours of volunteer service at a York hospital and, in the end, his organs. But, most of all, his wife says, Fleming was a devoted Christian. "He loved God most of all... It was God and then his family; that was his heart," she says. Although Janet Fleming’s voice is mostly strong and steady, she falters at times as she tries to cope with what happened. "I can’t make sense of it all... Everything’s numb," she says. She take some comfort in knowing that, just hours before he died, he was talking with an ER coworker about wanting to see and know God. "He wanted to see God in his glory — in the fullness of his glory," she says, pausing. "I don’t think this was the way he was planning on it happening. He would not have wanted to leave the kids ... He wanted to see them grow up." FYI Holy Spirit Hospital employees have started a fund to benefit Wade Fleming’s family. Cash, checks or gift cards to Wal-Mart or Giant and Weis supermarkets can be sent to: Holy Spirit Hospital 503 N. 21st St. Camp Hill, PA 17011 c/o Sister Martin Haubrich, R.N.
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