On Tuesday morning, Chris Basden received a special delivery for her 51st birthday. Flowers, sent from across the country by her 18-year-old son Trenton.
“He was so proud that he remembered to send those to me,” said Basden, who lives in the Seattle area with her husband, Steve. The couple moved from Gainesville last year for work but allowed Trenton to stay behind to finish his senior year at North Forsyth High School.
Later that day, Chris Basden received a call from a Forsyth County deputy informing her that her youngest child was dead, killed in a freak accident. Trenton was driving on Ga. 369 when a Toyota Scion in the opposite lane collided with a deer and sent it flying into the windshield of Basden's Honda Civic. He was pronounced dead on the scene, just three weeks away from graduating, with honors.
Chris Basden had planned to surprise her son by coming back to Georgia a week before his graduation. Being separated from him for the last 10 months had been difficult enough.
It was a decision the Basdens made reluctantly, knowing that a move to Washington state, with just one year of high school left, would be even tougher on Trenton.
“We talked pretty much every day,” said his father, Steve Basden, who remembered his son as “very loyal, a lover at heart.”
“He loved to do things for people,” he said.
Katie Van Voorn said Trenton, her boyfriend for more than a year, saved her life. He told friends the same thing about her.
She was his first girlfriend. He was her first boyfriend. They were each other’s first kiss and best friend, Van Voorn said.
They met on the job, at the Dawsonville Chick-fil-A, where Trenton would eventually became a team leader in charge of scheduling. Van Voorn was smitten at first sight.
“He wore the coolest glasses,” said the 18-year-old North Forsyth senior. “He held himself with a lot of confidence.”
And he could make her laugh “no matter what,” Van Voorn said.
“He taught me to love myself, to not care what other people think,” she said. “He’s the reason I’m so able to be so freaking strong right now.”
Trenton, said close friend Lacy Hamilton, 17, would know just how to help her get through such a tragic loss.
“No one was better at telling jokes in uncomfortable situations,” she said. “He could really read a room. It would’ve been nice to have him here right now.”
Hamilton said Trenton was a leader but unassuming about it. He could get away with admonishing his friends, telling them exactly what was on his mind, because they knew he cared,” Hamilton said.
Trenton was well-respected by teachers as well. He was in advanced placement courses in every subject; he died while on the way home from a study group for his macroeconomics class.
“I don’t think the other kids knew just how hard he worked,” said Trenton’s economics instructor, John Major. “He was a pleasure to teach.”
He applied what he learned in class to his job at Chick-fil-A, Major said
“Six weeks ago he brought me a printout of their labor costs per hour,” he said. “He really got it.”
He had been accepted to North Georgia College, and probably would have majored in business.
Van Voorn will be attending Lanier Tech, not far from North Georgia. She said she and Trenton had planned to remain a couple into their college years.
She last saw him on Monday, the day before he died. They hung out on her parents’ dock, just talking.
“It was the best last moment I could’ve had with him,” Van Voorn said. “As much as I miss him, I have an overwhelming peace. I know he’s in heaven.”
Trenton Basden’s funeral is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Mountain Lake Church in Cumming.
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