‘You couldn’t help but love him’

The saying “they were like brothers” wasn’t quite enough to describe the relationship William and Andrew Rhea shared.

The young men “shared an amazing bond,” Trinity Collegiate School headmaster Robert Veto said.

But the bond was broken in this life by the Oct. 28 Ocean Isle beach house fire.

Andrew, 19, escaped with minor injuries, while William, 18, was one of the seven who died.

“Everybody loved (William). Everybody really misses him,” Anna Lee Rhea, William’s younger sister, told The Associated Press. “You couldn't help but love him.”

William’s death was a devastating blow to Andrew, she said.

Another set of brothers, Bern and Brooks Lavespere, were among the eight men who carried William’s casket from First Presbyterian Church in Florence Nov. 1. The Lavesperes grew up down the street from the Rheas.

Brooks, 18, attended elementary school and later Trinity Collegiate School in Darlington with William. They only separated this year when Brooks went to Clemson and William to USC.

“It's been just kind of a daze,” he said. “There are times when you don't really accept it and times when it hits you really hard, just different emotions.”

Brooks was invited to the beach house that weekend but decided to stay at Clemson.

Scott Rogers, 18, another close friend and pallbearer, shared a double stroller with William when they were infants. He thinks of William’s mother, Margaret Eugenia Lee, as “pretty much a second mom.”

“He was the best friend anyone could ask for,” Rogers said. “He would help you if you ever needed help with anything. He was always there for you. If you ever needed a ride or anything else, he'd be there in a second.”

William, known to friends and family as Will, was an avid athlete who enjoyed baseball, basketball and golf.

Will was the life of the party in high school, a boy who loved hanging out with his friends, speaking up in class and waiting until the last minute to do his homework, Rogers said.

Since the fire, Rogers has been at the Rhea home all day, every day, comforting Andrew.

“(Will and Andrew) basically did everything together,” cousin Trey Floyd, 17, said in a phone interview. “Sometimes they got in arguments, but they were each other's best friends.”

Will, a freshman at USC and Andrew, a sophomore, worked as lifeguards with Floyd at the Florence Country Club pool for two summers.

“(Will) was so full of energy,” Floyd said. “Once you talked to him, you'd never forget him. He was the type of person you always wanted to be around.”

Will was making the most of his freshman year by tailgating at football games and pledging his older brother’s fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

The young man with a contagious laugh and crooked smile touched a lot of lives in Florence.

Will’s mother was overwhelmed by the flood of support following her son’s death. “She told me, ‘He has more friends than I do,’” Barry Jenkins, senior pastor of First Presbyterian, said during Will’s funeral service. “‘Everyone knew Will and everyone loved him,’ she said.”