Posted on 08/14/2002 4:37:43 PM PDT by ResistorSister
JuWanna Taylor, widow of slain Massillon Patrolman Eric B. Taylor, is finding the strength to cope from the most precious gifts her husband gave her: their two young children.
``My children are what have kept me going,'' Taylor said Tuesday at the family's home in Massillon. ``You have to put you on the back burner. They need their mother.''
Taylor, 31, said she has tried to keep her children, Ty, 2, and Lauren, 1, as close to their regular daily schedules as possible since her husband was shot and killed Friday night while on duty. Eric Taylor, 31, joined the Massillon department in 1998.
``He's usually here,'' she said. ``Now, Mom's here instead of Dad. I've just tried to keep them in as much of a routine as possible.''
The routine for the household saw Tuesdays as Dad's day with the children, Taylor said.
``He let me have a day to myself. He was an excellent father.''
As the days go by, Taylor said, coping with her husband's death is becoming more difficult.
``When everything happened (on Friday), I just went numb. And since then, there has always been somebody here... This is the first time I've kind of been by myself,'' she said. ``The numbness is starting to wear off.''
Whether it was playing with the children or doing household chores, Taylor said her husband always took care of his family.
``There are not many men out there like that,'' she said, ``but my husband was. He cooked, he cleaned, he changed diapers. He did everything... We raised our children together.''
Taylor said she also has found comfort in the many friends and family members who have been by her side.
``We're just staying here and making sure she's OK,'' said JuMekia Jones, JuWanna Taylor's sister. Jones, 24, arrived from California on Saturday.
The first time Taylor saw her future husband, she knew he was someone special.
``I said to my friend, `Ooh, that's a cute guy,' '' Taylor said, remembering when they met in 1994. Her friend happened to know Eric and called him over.
``We exchanged phone numbers that night,'' Taylor said. ``On the way home, I told my friend, `He's going to be my husband.' ''
Five years later, he was.
Her husband's line of work was a worry for Taylor in the past.
``Lately, I didn't worry much at all,'' she said. ``I just thought this (Massillon) was a safe place to work.''
When one of Eric Taylor's fellow officers pulled into the family's driveway Friday night to inform JuWanna her husband had been shot, she thought it was her husband coming home, she said.
``My husband would check on us a lot,'' she said.
Even when the officer rang the doorbell, she still didn't think anything of it, she said.
``I just thought he forgot his key at work,'' she said. ``I just opened the door and walked away from it.''
When the officer told her that her husband had been shot, Taylor said she ``freaked out.''
``I froze,'' she said. ``I said, `I've got to get my babies.' ''
Taylor said Massillon police officers have shared information surrounding her husband's death so she can know as much as possible.
``He engaged the suspect, not knowing he was armed,'' she said officers told her.
Taylor said officers told her that her husband tried to exit his car through the passenger-side door when Donald W. Matthews, 61, of Jackson Township fired.
``The car was still in drive and kept rolling, but he managed to escape from the car,'' she said.
When the gunfire ceased, Eric Taylor, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, had been fatally shot. Matthews also had been shot dead.
While her husband always had a way of making others smile, Taylor said it was tough to get him to grin for a camera.
``He wasn't big on taking pictures,'' she said, laughing. Taylor said she had to ``basically beg'' her husband to sit for a family photo about six months ago.
``I am so glad I did that,'' she said.
Taylor said she has been overwhelmed by the community's outpouring of support.
``I can't express into words how appreciative I am and how it feels to know that he has gotten a response like this,'' she said.
Calling hours will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Stewart & Calhoun funeral home, 529 W. Thornton St. in Akron. There also will be calling hours from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at the House of the Lord, 1650 Diagonal Road in Akron. The funeral service will begin at 11 a.m.
Following the ceremony, Eric Taylor will be buried at Mount Peace Cemetery, 183 Aqueduct St. in Akron.
JuWanna Taylor said the services may bring ``a small amount of closure.''
``But also then it's the beginning of a life without him,'' she said. ``That's going to be the toughest.''
Not at all.
Is a prohibition on driving without a license unconstitutional? A simple yes or no will do.
Well, we agree on that.
Is a prohibition on driving without a license unconstitutional? A simple yes or no will do.
I was responding to your comment about that post from Jim Rob to you being taken out of context. I think YOU are the one taking posts out of context.
From this thread: Here
-------------------------------------------------------------------- I know! Why don't we ASK him what he meant by "other agendas"?? It's so easy. I'm just gonna type "Jim Robinson" up there in that reply box...there! And then I'm going to hit Post...whee, that was simple.
52 posted on 8/15/02 10:00 AM Pacific by hellinahandcart
--------------------------------------------
To: hellinahandcart
Defending cop killers is nuts.
124 posted on 8/15/02 11:16 AM Pacific by Jim Robinson
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To: hellinahandcart
Pulling a gun during a traffic stop is indefensible. This is not defending the Constitution, it is sheer criminal stupidity.
135 posted on 8/15/02 11:53 AM Pacific by Jim Robinson
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So I would say that Jim Robinson is VERY comfortable with these threads, as you VERY well know. So stop using Jim's post to you from 2-17-02 COMPLETELY out of context. I stand by my original premise that you are a disruptor.
To commit murder, no. To use the public roads on his own terms, why not? Public roads are not the state's privare property. They are open land. He wasn't endangering anyone, from what I understand.
Either federal, state, county or city roads ARE not 'open land'. They are paid for by ALL of us.......but 'owned' and maintained by the various governments. Your driveway is yours.
Last night while I was walking my dog I came to a 4-way stop. There were two cars stopped, opposing each other, going east-west. Just as they started out into the intersection and I started to cross the street, someone in a small green Honda blew through the north-south stop going pretty much flat out--I'd estimate in excess of 65-70 mph--the speed limit is 25 mph. The drivers at the east-west stop signs slammed on their brakes & the dog & I jumped back on the curb. Neither driver moved for at least 30 seconds because they were so shaken.
According to you, the driver in the green Honda, the one who, but for a matter of inches, would have t-boned one of the cars, minimum, can use the road at "his own terms," even if he endangered others, right?
JR has just said the same things that most all of us have been saying since saturday.
-- But I doubt seriously he is comfortable with the flaming & trashing going on in the threads.
So stop using Jim's post to you from 2-17-02 COMPLETELY out of context.
I don't remember who that post was posted to [not me], or the original context. But to me, it fits this issues context well. This guy was a fundamentalist constitutional nut, imo, and I speak out against his type here nearly every day. -- I'm not defending him now. -- I'm speaking up against the flaming & trashing, -- the 'disruption' of FR.
I stand by my original premise that you are a disruptor.
That argument works both ways, as we see.
Matthews had no inalienable right to use our public roads on his on terms, the rationalizations of his lowlife apologists notwithstanding.
BTW, that means you.
Roads are not "open land." They are roads. If they were truly open land, then one could freely drive northbound in the southbound lane.
As for "not endangering anyone," I have heard that excuse from all kinds of people, including the a**hole who ripped a door off of my car careening through a residential neighborhood at 80 MPH, at night, with no lights.
Had it been one second later, I would have been standing between the open driver's door and his front bumper.
But, I guess that, in your "civilization of one," he wasn't REALLY endangering anyone.
Yes or no?
I continue to try and make that point, but as you know, certain 'nuts' are harder to crack than others.
Of course he was a coward. This wasn't a brave man facing a duel on equal terms with his opponent. This wasn't a man interested in a fair fight. This was a cruel ambush. And for your calling Mr. Matthews a 'brave man' you have earned your place on the Nut List.
And again, YOU are the welcoming committe.
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