Tribute to dead friends
AMERICAN student Stephen Houseman paid tribute to his dead friends in a memorial service last night.
Houseman, 20, from New York, was the driver of the van which flipped, killing three of his closest friends in a horror crash last Saturday, including his best friend Austin Brashears, 21.
Yesterday Houseman, flanked by his mother and father, his right arm in a cast, attended a memorial in Auckland to his Boston University colleagues where he was wrapped around with hugs and support before and during the service.
Houseman spoke clearly and bravely about the three friends he had lost – Roch Jauberty, 21 who taught him basketball and was always the life of the party, Daniela Lekhno, 20 who was ‘‘beautiful inside and out’’, intelligent and witty, and his best mate, Brashears, who he met in the airport bound for New Zealand.
‘‘Austin was my best friend. He still is my best friend and he will always be my best friend.
‘‘I want you to know if I have a son I will name him after you and if my wife disagrees I will get a new wife. I love you so much.’’
Houseman said he would associate his time in New Zealand with Brashears.
He shared memories of laughing until he cried with him in Rotorua’s zorb and being put on separate teams because they made such great teammates.
‘‘Every memory I have associated with New Zealand, Austin is right there – kayaking the Milford Sounds, zorbing in Rotorua, white water rafting, sand boarding.
‘‘He was my pal and my confidante.’’
Houseman said from the moment they met, their mission was ‘‘to make everything look a lot cooler than we actually were’’.
‘‘The first time I met him in the airport I remember thinking this kid is really cool, I wonder if I’ll be cool like him if we hang out.’’
From that moment they were inseparable. They shared a love of Harry Potter, and all things magic, and Disney songs.
‘‘I thought I was the only guy who knew the words to almost every Disney classic song but Austin impressed me by knowing more than me. You were an inspiration that I will take with me for the rest of my life, in the mindset of what would Austin do? Nomatter how big it is I will get out of my comfort zone and try it.’’
On Friday, Houseman had stood alone in an Auckland District Court dock, facing seven charges.
He faces three counts of careless driving causing death and four of careless driving causing injury. He has not yet pleaded.
Meg Theriault, 21, who was also in the van, remains in a critical condition in Waikato Hospital’s intensive care unit.
Theriault is breathing on her own after relying on a tube for a week. Her parents, Todd and Deb, have met Houseman’s parents.
‘‘We feel their pain and he [Houseman] now has a journey of recovery much like our daughter. We understand there needs to be a court process and we support that, but that could have been any one of our kids at the wheel,’’ Todd and Deb said in a statement.