Isaiah Dean called them mom and dad. They were really his grandparents, but they’d been given custody of the teen when he was 10 months old.
“We raised him like he was our own,” Clyde Bruce said.
Isaiah had grown into a strong, ambitious 16-year-old as a sophomore at South Cobb High School. But Tuesday morning, a split-second decision cost him his life.
As he tried to cross busy Austell Road, Isaiah was hit by a car. He died several hours later at a hospital.
Bruce said he believes Isaiah and a friend were leaving school long enough to walk to a nearby Rite Aid to get a drink.
“I travel up and down Austell Road all the time,” Bruce said. “You constantly see kids crossing the road right there, going back and forth right there.”
There isn’t a crosswalk, but that doesn’t stop students from crossing the four-lane road, his grandfather said. Isaiah might’ve thought he could outrun the cars.
“He thought he was all that and a bucket of Oreos,” Bruce said. “I could see him racing another guy.”
No criminal charges are expected against the Acworth man who was driving the Plymouth Neon that hit Isaiah, police said. The driver, Bruce M. Guercio, 60, remained at the scene after the boy was hit, visibly shaken, according to witnesses.
Bruce said his grandson likely didn’t suffer. Somehow, Isaiah’s major organs were spared serious damage and were donated, along with his bone marrow and tissue. Bruce said medical staff told him as many as 50 people will benefit from Isaiah’s organ donations.
“He’s going to touch a lot of people’s lives,” Bruce said.
Isaiah already had left a mark on his South Cobb community. An online fundraising page continued to raise money Thursday to help the family with funeral expenses. One of Isaiah's teachers left a note on the page.
“Isaiah was a hoot!,” Gaelyn Warren posted. “He made our theatre class fun and was a team player. I will miss his sense of humor, his smirky smile, and his intellectual comments. He was a bright young man!”
After playing on the 9th grade football team last year, Isaiah wasn’t on a team this year so he could focus on his grades, Bruce said. But Isaiah often had a football in his hands.
Isaiah didn’t have his driver’s license yet, and Bruce said he didn’t have time for many things he wanted the two to do together. Bruce recently got a bike, and the two had talked about riding together.
Instead, Bruce said he and his wife, Connie, must now plan a funeral. In recent years, both of the Bruces have dealt with serious illnesses, but could always count on Isaiah to help. The teen stepped up when he was needed most. Bruce said the reality of losing Isaiah hasn’t set in.
“I couldn’t ask for a better son. I could not do it,” Bruce said. “If I could build me another son, I’d build him just like Isaiah. He was my everything.”
Funeral arrangements were pending Thursday afternoon.
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