'You can’t have a child and not feel the loss'

By JOEY HOLLEMAN - jholleman@thestate.com

Darlene Krammer knew her son, Andreas, had stayed on campus at USC for the weekend. She knew he wasn’t in the fraternity mentioned in the news reports about a beach house fire at Ocean Isle, N.C. Still, she was worried sick when she couldn’t get in contact with Andreas on Sunday.

“It’s the most chilling, fearful thing you could imagine,” said Krammer, who lives in the Chicago area. “It’s overwhelming.”

It’s something every USC parent felt, unless their child was in sight when they heard the news. Hearts skipped a beat, even for parents who were certain their children weren’t at the beach for the weekend.

Darlene and her husband, Ludwig, had noticed the headlines on the Daily Gamecock, which they read online, and had seen coverage on television news. Then some of Andreas’ high school friends started calling to see if his parents had heard from him.

Andreas finally contacted his parents early Monday. “When he called, he said, ‘Don’t be flipping out,’” Darlene recalled a few hours later. “He didn’t think it would be national news.”

Anne Peach’s son was on a weekend retreat with a USC business fraternity in Tennessee. She heard bits and pieces of a news report about a house fire in which USC students were injured.

“I immediately panicked,” said Peach, who lives in the Orlando area. “I called him, and he called back in less than five minutes.”

Daniel Peach told his mother he was fine. Like many college-age males, Daniel didn’t open up emotionally. His mother, like all long-distance college parents, wished she could reach through the phone to give him a hug.

“Every parent panics when something like this happens,” Anne Peach said. “My heart breaks for those parents.”

Alvin Cox of Atlanta communicates with his daughter, Carter, several times a day. Even though the Coxes knew Carter wasn’t at the beach, hearing the news was devastating.

“It’s brutal, just brutal,” Alvin Cox said. “Those parents’ loss is my loss. You can’t have a child and not feel the loss.”

He suspected he was like a lot of USC parents Monday, sleep-walking through the work day.

“It’s hard to take your mind off (last spring’s shootings at) Virginia Tech and things like this,” Alvin Cox said. “That university will be a little bit different now. People will value relationships a little more.”

Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366.