‘Half of me is gone’

Students mourn fire victims in Clemson service

By ADAM BEAM - abeam@thestate.com

CLEMSON — Surrounded by eight friends, Meredith Yelton stood in front of hundreds of college students and read a letter to her twin sister, Emily.

Emily, a sophomore at Clemson, was one of seven students killed Sunday in a beach house fire in North Carolina.

“Half of me is gone,” Meredith Yelton said, pausing occasionally to pull her hair behind her ears, tears glistening on her cheeks.

“Who is going to sleep with me at night when I am scared?”

Meredith Yelton spoke to the hundreds of Clemson and USC students who filled the shadows of Clemson’s outdoor amphitheater Wednesday night for a memorial service for the seven.

With the sounds of a water fountain bubbling just behind her, she told stories about her outgoing twin, who was scared of the dark and had a weird sense of humor.

Meredith recalled telling her sister she was going for a run at night, only to have Emily respond, “But it’s dark outside.”

“It’s these moments I will hold on to.”

Students from both universities filled the amphitheater 30 minutes before the memorial was scheduled to start as songs by Elton John and James Taylor played softly on a sound system.

Even Clemson junior Dan Warren, who had knee surgery four days ago and could barely walk, made it to the top step of the amphitheater before setting his crutches down to take in the scene.

“I think it’s great everyone is coming together to show their support and their love,” he said.

As he finished speaking, the crowd stood as 14 members of Yelton’s family were escorted to the front of the theater.

Many speakers remarked that while the universities are separated by 100 years of rivalry, they had been united by this tragedy.

“We must remember that we are not enemies, but we are allies in the game of life,” Clemson student government vice president Callie Boyd said.

And just as USC students bade farewell to their classmates at a memorial service Tuesday night by singing their alma mater, Clemson President Jim Barker said goodbye by quoting Clemson’s alma mater, “Dear ol’ Clemson, we will triumph.”

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.