Statement from the Stone family
The Family of Bonnie and Marvin Stone Would like to express our thanks for all the support we have received from the OSU family.
As a Fire-Rescue member of my local department I have responded to multi casualty scenes. They are utter chaos. We have to quickly assess the scene of destruction and concentrate on our job of saving the maximum amount of lives possible. From an observers view we are ignoring patients, but the most injured need treatment first. Fatalities are not helpable, so you move on. We were blessed by our Lord several times on Saturday. We were told that Bonnie and Marv had been watching from that particular spot for a few years. We think parents with little kids hang there, they love little kids. We feel their deaths saved some of those kids. At this point I have to acknowledge Tim Andersen of Limon Colorado. Their daughter is a senior at Oklahoma State University. They had come to Stillwater to support her as she had been involved in planning homecoming activities. She had texted them to go down the block farther and would be able to see the parade better. They were within 25 ft. of the accident when it happened. Tim ran over to give assistance, helping to lift the car off the victims. He did not know who they were at that time. My mother had been officially advised of Bonnie and Marvin’s passing on Saturday night. My sister Beth, her husband Rick and I gathered things and headed for Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon. We stopped for gas in Oakley Kansas. At the gas station we chance met Tim and Andrea Andersen, a friend I had known for many years. Tim and I were having trouble getting our words out. My wife had called me enroute saying that Tim’s daughter had posted on social media that Tim had been only 25 ft. away. Tim was able to get out that he did all that he could and didn’t know at the time who it was. I wanted to acknowledge to Tim publicly that as emergency personnel we are trained to do as much as you possibly can and that is what he did. Thank you Lord! And thank you Tim Andersen! We all need to say a silent prayer for Emergency personnel who perform above and beyond the call of duty, almost always with major Chaos and not enough resources. They get the job done. The first blessing for me was Tim and the emergency personnel. Thank you all.
Another blessing happened when my mom had planned to be alone for the weekend as the family was involved in several activities. Her sister Fern had decided on the spur of the moment to drive down and see mom. If not for divine intervention mom would have been alone when law enforcement came to inform her of the passing of Bonnie and Marvin. It might be difficult to say but another blessing is that Bonnie and Marvin’s passing will keep them together for eternity. They were side by side all there married life, rarely seen one without the other. The last blessing is all of you who are here today.
On Monday we started our search to find Bonnie and Marvin’s wishes for final arrangements. Marv’s close friend and MicroFirm work associate Kent Diabel met us at the house and provided us uninterrupted help while we were in Stillwater. We have adopted him as a brother. On Tuesday we decide to go on campus to see their friends at Ag engineering and SIS. We walked in unannounced to the receptionist at Ag Engineering, Dr. Glen Brown heard “The Stone Family” and came out to greet us. He found a conference room gathered staff, faculty and student and we spent a couple hours talking about Marvin and Bonnie, so many stories. We toured the lab and machine shop. We then walked to Bonnie’s work place at SIS. We were welcomed into Bonnie’s office and spent hours reminiscing about OSU basketball and Bonnie’s love for it. Bonnie’s co-worker and friend Rhoda Hughes as well as Doug Reed have been so helpful during our stay. We can’t thank them enough for all their kindness.
We had planned to start home Tuesday night until we were made aware of the Wednesday night vigil in their honor. As a family we felt we needed to come to the vigil so the caravan left Colorado Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. The planning by Ag Engineering and SIS is very much appreciated. The program was an uplifting experience for all of us.
As a large close knit family, Bonnie and Marv with no kids of their own were grandparents to all our kids. They came to ceremonies, parties, games and Christmas for all our families. Bonnie and Marvin came to Stillwater in the 80’s, Marvin as a first teaching assignment with Bonnie in accounting at the university. They made many friends thru the years, we knew some from visits, some from stories they told. This university was their other family. The outpouring of hospitality, support and food after our arrival on Sunday from fellow faculty, neighbors and co-workers was such an uplifting feeling I can hardly describe. The family wants to convey to all of you our gratitude for sharing with our family Bonnie and Marvin’s other family.
My God Bless the United States of America, Oklahoma State University and all of You.
Lenny Stone
Marv’s brother