She had a wicked fastball, she loved to dance, fish and cook, and her favorite song was "Hall of Fame" by The Script and will.i.am because, she swore, one day she would be famous. Celine Grace Wyatt, 11, died Monday in an all-terrain vehicle crash. The preliminary report shows she died from a fracture to the lower base of the skull, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said.
Celine was not wearing a helmet at the time, but a helmet likely would not have prevented the injury, Lutz said.
Celine was a sixth-grader at Adamsville Elementary School. She left behind her parents Becky and Tim Wyatt, her 17-year-old sister Haley, and her 15-year-old brother Caleb. "She was crazy. She was my little freckle-faced baby," Becky said. "I don't know how to go on. I don't know how to live without her. ... I don't know how you fill that hole because she was such a big part of what I did."
'Miracle baby' Celine was a miracle baby, and she knew it, Becky said. After Caleb was born, Becky decided to stop having children and had her tubes tied, but then she decided she wanted one more and had the procedure reversed. She lost a pair of twins to a heterotopic pregnancy, and then there was Celine, born June 23, 2002.
Celine was named after the pastor and his wife of the church the Wyatts were attending at the time, Becky said. The pastor's name was Cecil and his wife's name was Eileen, so Becky put them together to make Celine, which means heaven. "She loved to tell everyone the story of how she was a miracle baby," Becky said.
As a baby, Celine was clingy and wanted to be held all the time, Becky said. Tim was working nights then, so Celine would always sleep with her mom. Before she would shut her eyes, Celine always wanted her mother to sing her song to her, "You are my Sunshine."
"She always wanted held, and she loved to snuggle," Becky said. "She was very loving. She always had to hug you and kiss you, and she always told you she loved you."
On the diamond .. Celine had numerous interests, but probably her biggest passion was softball. The past two years, she was part of the traveling softball team Impact, and "everything was 'Go Green,' " Becky said. Celine grew up watching Haley play softball, and she wanted to be just like her big sister, Becky said.
When Celine was 10, Haley's 18-and-younger team was short of players, so Celine got to play a game with her sister. She smashed a three-run hit, and the next year, at 11 years old, she was a full-fledged member of the team, Becky said. During Celine's last softball tournament with Impact, they won the championship, and Celine pitched 14 strikeouts against a team that had never been beaten, Becky said.
Impact is retiring Celine's number, 22, and the girls will all wear a patch in Celine's memory this year, Becky said. Celine's father, Tim, was her unofficial catcher and pitching coach. Every day, Tim and Celine would practice together, either in the backyard or the basement. Tim took countless hits to the shin, and once, she blackened his eye, but he loved it, he said.
"We spent a lot of time pitching, and we got really, really close that way," he said. "She was very, very, very talented." Tim loved playing softball with Celine, but what he'll miss even more than that is tucking her into bed at night, he said. She was a tough little girl, but she was still a little girl, and she wouldn't go to sleep unless her parents tucked her in and said goodnight, he said.
Celine had what her parents described as a strong personality. When batters stepped into the box, she would get this look on her face, and she would stare them down, like she knew she was going to strike them out, Becky said. And then she did. "She just never quit," Becky said. "She evoked strong emotions in people. You either really, really liked Celine, or you couldn't stand her."
At the same time, Celine was the "champion of the underdog," Becky said. She was always willing to stand up for her family and friends, and she couldn't stand to see anyone mistreated.
The crash .. The day of the crash, Celine got home from school just a little after 4 p.m. Tim was in the yard mowing, and she ran up to him and gave him a big hug, he said. He told her there was some chili in the slow cooker -- Celine always seemed to be hungry -- and she ran inside to change and eat. A little while later, she came back out, and Tim told her he had just gassed up the four-wheeler and asked whether she wanted to take a drive. She drove in circles around the yard, and Tim remembers telling her at one point to take the turns a little slower, he said.
Then Becky got home from work, and Celine drove over to greet her mom. She asked her mom to hop on with her, as they often did, but Becky said no that time. She went inside, telling Celine to come in herself in a few minutes. School pictures are today, and Celine had a hair appointment Monday night, Becky said.
From there, the Wyatts aren't sure exactly what happened. Becky heard Tim screaming, and she ran outside, she said. Tim just saw the back wheels of the ATV spinning. The top was smashed, and Celine was no longer on the vehicle, just lying beside it, he said. "She didn't act like she was in pain," Becky said. "She fought. We were begging her to fight and not leave."
Becky could tell, however, that her daughter was bleeding internally. Then Celine stopped breathing. Becky tried to do CPR, but Celine was gone, she said. Emergency personnel arrived, and they, too, fought to bring Celine back, but it was too late, Becky said. Eventually, a long time after Celine had no pulse, she and Tim asked them to stop, to let Celine go.
Dashed dreams .. Celine was supposed to get her braces off next week, and she was so excited to eat bubble gum and beef jerky again. She was pumped for the upcoming softball season because, even though she was still in elementary school, there was talk of her pitching for the middle school team this year, Tim said.
A little further down the road, Celine's dream was to pitch in the Olympics, and even further than that, she wanted to be an elementary school teacher and a coach. "She was just tough, and it's hard to believe someone that tough can be gone," Becky said. Celine had so much talent that it was sometimes easy to forget she was just 11 years old, Becky said.
But then you'd see her on the softball field, and right in the middle of the game, she and her third baseman and best friend, Maddy Wortman, would do the sprinkler dance together. Or you would walk into Celine's room, decorated in bright purple and pink, with a legion of stuffed animals mixed among the softball and basketball trophies. On one bookcase, Celine has the Nancy Drew book series, lined up alongside a set of "Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life." On Celine's nightstand, there's a string of ticket stubs from the movie theater. On Sunday, the Wyatt family went to see "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" together. It was the last family outing they had together, and it was the first time in a long time that they went to the movies, just the five of them with no additions, Becky said. She had no idea it would be the last. "How do you sum up 11 years, a girl that vibrant and alive, in a few minutes?" Becky asked. "She was always so full of life. Always."
I post this to remind all, how fragile life really is. Life can be changed in an instant. If only .......
I am also making sure that my DAUGHTER ... MELISSA SHANNON reads this .... she rides her four wheeler all over the neighborhood ... no helmet ... she is a Mother and a Grandmother .... Melissa, call and let me know you read this ....
