Corey Hausmann, 18, died Sunday when the car he was a passenger in flipped over.
By: Scott Morgan
SPRINGFIELD David Hausmann managed to escape with his life. That, at least, made his father, Gary, thankful he didn’t lose two sons.
But he did lose one.
According to State Police Sgt. Frank Moore, it happened around 2:30 p.m. Sunday. That afternoon, David and Corey Hausmann were on their way to pick up Corey’s paycheck at the Target store on Route 541 near Burlington Mall. They were passengers in a friend’s car that hit a sharp left turn on Burr’s Access Road a well-marked and well-known dangerous curve, Sgt. Moore said and flipped. David and the driver, 19-year-old William Driber of Burlington, managed to get out of the car.
David, Mr. Hausmann said, called home from his cell phone to tell him Corey was trapped beneath it and unable to breathe.
Two hours later, and two weeks from his 19th birthday, Corey Hausmann was pronounced dead at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly.
"He’s asleep, awaiting his return," Mr. Hausmann said of Corey. "Faith," he added, "is the only thing keeping us all together."
And it is faith that will guide the family through. While it is impossible to measure the size of the hole such a loss entails, Mr. Hausmann said it is a little easier to bear knowing his son is in heaven; and it is through faith that the Hausmanns will remember Corey’s life more than his death, he said.
"He was just a great kid," Mr. Hausmann said. "Everybody just really loved him (and) he just loved people."
"A lot of teenagers socially avoid adults … but he wasn’t like that," said Dennis McDaniel of the Springfield Township Council, who met Corey last year when he proposed his Eagle Scout project. Corey, said Councilman Richard Toone, who worked closely with him on the project, would go on to paint the cinderblock outer walls of the township Emergency Medical Services building on Jobstown-Juliustown Road, turning them from gritty eyesore to beautiful white.
"Eagle Scouts are the guys who become astronauts and doctors." said Mr. Toone, verbally shaking his head in disbelief. "They’re go-getters."
"How do you deal with it?" Mr. McDaniel asked.
The answer, for Corey’s family, is faith. For Mr. Hausmann, his wife, Mary, and their four surviving children, reconstructing Corey’s life in the path of God will be the key.
"We know that our lives on this earth are very temporal compared to our eternal lives," said the Rev. John Chelar, the Hausmanns’ minister who will be performing Saturday’s memorial service at Columbus Baptist Church. "Corey’s waking moment will be with Jesus Christ."
The service, in fact, will be centered around the idea that Corey is not gone, but, rather, asleep. It was what Jesus called the time between the shedding of our mortal bodies and the moment of his divine return, the Rev. Chelar said.
"The greater truth is the promise of eternal life," he said. "The truth prevails."
Sgt. Moore said motor vehicle charges against Mr. Driber are pending, but would not comment on the suspected cause of the accident. Mr. Driber will not face criminal charges, the sergeant said.
Memorial contributions may be sent to the Springfield Township Veterans Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 119, Jobstown, NJ 08041.