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Family celebration tinged with sadness
By MELIA BOWIE, Times Staff Writer HUNTER'S GREEN -- Relatives filled the two-story house on Tuesday, nine in all. They had come to celebrate. John Howlett IV was graduating from Wharton High School. "We're real proud of him," said his father, John Howlett III. His son, the one with the 6.36 GPA, is going to Stanford. But a lingering somberness pervaded the bright house on Hickory Moss Place where the teenager and his younger brother Ashton, 12, grew up. Yes, the family was commemorating the senior's accomplishments. But none could forget that just three months earlier, they had come to this same house for another reason -- to mourn. It had rained for hours Feb. 23 when Ashton Howlett and his father returned from a soccer tournament in Lakeland. After changing lanes to avoid an RV, the Howletts' car slipped into a spin and hit a lamp post near exit 9. It broke the elder Howlett's ribs and left Ashton with brain damage. The honor student and athlete died five days later. "We know he's with the Lord," said John Howlett III of his son. "But we miss him." So did friends, neighbors and teammates who petitioned the school board to name Benito Middle School's soccer field after the seventh-grader. The board approved the new name on May 21. "We weren't aware of it at all," Howlett said softly. "We feel extremely fortunate and very grateful that the outpouring of sympathy and compassion in regard to Ashton has been so overwhelming, . . . that he was so valued by the community." Neighbors said they remember a 12-year-old helping their kids with homework, fostering sportsmanship and fairness. And while John and Gloria Howlett never told their boys to come home with straight A's, both sons did anyway. "When we heard about it (the accident) that day, all the parents were just in shock," said neighbor Gary Nager, who helped spur the soccer field campaign. "He was just a real sweet, friendly, nice kid." It could have been any parent that day, said Steve Meinsen, a neighbor who came up with the renaming idea. "I thought it would be a great way to remember him, a great way for everyone to remember him." The Howletts said they received more than 500 cards from within New Tampa. Classmates made videos wishing their son well when he was in the hospital and telling him he was missed. Nearly 150 students showed up for his viewing, another 150 for his funeral. "The School Board, city officials name buildings all the time after people nobody has a connection to," Nager said. "This is someone everyone has a connections to." Benito principal Barbara Hancock said the music department has created an annual award in Ashton's honor to recognize an outstanding seventh-grader. "So it's music and soccer, all the things he loved," she said. The Howletts moved to Hunters' Green from California in 1994. Both boys excelled at school, said their father. Ashton, who sported an Afro for a while, was known for the mammoth lunch box his dad always packed him, his corny jokes and his easy-going nature. On family road trips he read encyclopedias. He scored 1100 on his PSATs. At Benito, he was in the gifted program and played the tenor saxophone in the school band. A member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Ashton also attended Idlewild Baptist Church and was selected for Duke University's Talent Identification Program. He played competitive soccer for the Comets. "It was something he was interested in," said his dad, adding that Ashton began in third-grade and worked to become a top defender and team co-captain. "Ashton did not realize how many lives he touched, because he just walked in joy and delight. He was an angel walking." -- Staff Writer Melia Bowie can be reached at bowie@sptimes.com.
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From the Times Letters |
