Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Sorrow rides in on Capitol dream

By LUCY MORGAN
Published February 26, 2005

House Speaker Allan Bense was happily presiding over the final day of a special session of the Legislature on Dec. 16, the first amicable session lawmakers had seen in years.

That's when he looked down at his former aide, Rep. David Coley, R-Marianna. Bense didn't like what he saw and immediately summoned Coley to the podium.

Bense told the brand-new representative from North Florida he looked terrible. "You need to see a doctor."

Bense should know. Coley spent almost six years as Bense's legislative aide.

"Without him, I wouldn't be in the speaker's office," Bense said this week as he recalled that morning in December. "There are folks in my district who would rather talk to him than me."

Coley, 43, was elected to the House in November. It was his dream job.

The father of three children, Coley handles public relations at Chipola Community College and volunteers with the Florida Highway Patrol auxiliary.

Before working for Bense, Coley worked for U.S. Rep. Bill Grant of Madison and even spent time as a newspaperman at the Gadsden County Times.

Coley doesn't drink or smoke and Bense says he has never even heard him curse, an extraordinary achievement in a process that lends itself to profane words. He's a deacon at an Assembly of God church, the sort of citizen we like to have in elected office.

As an aide to Bense, Coley quietly and efficiently got things done.

Last year Coley ran for the House when Rep. Bev Kilmer, R-Quincy left to run for Congress. "It's what he always wanted," Bense says.

Coley's election in November opened the door for a new chapter in his life, serving constituents in Leon, Gadsden, Calhoun, Liberty, Bay, Jackson, Okaloosa, Wakulla and Walton counties.

With 11 years' experience and close ties to House leadership, he is certain to have more influence than the average freshman.

When confronted on that December morning by his old boss, Coley admitted he had not been feeling well and promised to see a doctor.

Seven days later, just two days before Christmas, Coley learned he had liver cancer.

The doctors at Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville said he had four months to live.

"I cried," Bense recalled.

The news didn't stop there.

Coley went to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, where doctors thought it was a slower growing cancer and offered hope for a liver transplant. But they saw a spot on his spine that troubled them.

Then Coley went to the University of Maryland Medical Center. They didn't think the spot on his spine was cancerous but back at Mayo, they performed a biopsy and confirmed the worst. He was taken off the waiting list, where 17,000 people await a transplant. Patients with other serious medical problems don't qualify.

This week Coley returned to the House in a wheelchair looking jaundiced and weak. He's lost at least 40 pounds. He went to his first committee meeting Tuesday.

Shortly before the 8 a.m. meeting of the House Transportation & Economic Development Committee, Bense went to Coley's office on the third floor of the Capitol.

It was Bense, one of the three most powerful officials in the state, who pushed his former aide down the halls of the Capitol and into Reed Hall for the meeting.

There wasn't a dry eye in the place.

Bense says he and others are working to set up a trust fund to help Coley and his family deal with medical bills and educating his three children.

Coley initially rejected help, but Bense says he thinks it's needed.

It's a touchy issue because public officials can't accept gifts valued at more than $100, and they want to be sure whatever fund they establish can pass ethical muster.

On Thursday, Bense had an unusual request for the reporters who cover the Capitol.

"I do want to make sure you folks keep my good friend, David Coley, in your prayers," Bense asked.

He's hoping for a miracle.

[Last modified February 26, 2005, 01:14:15]