It had been a year since Brandon Baugh had last seen his friend Lazerick Flowers. He would have a day before his final goodbye.
Brandon, 15, had just returned to his hometown of Schlater from Ohio Monday morning. Around mid-afternoon, a group of friends stopped by to invite him out to their fishing spot on Lake McNutt. They were excited about a paddleboat they had found four days ago, Brandon said.
When he got to the lake, Brandon saw Lazerick, 16, out in the paddleboat joking around with the other teenagers who were swimming. It was just like old times, he said.
"I was on the bank when Lazerick fell out of the paddleboat," Brandon said. "I thought he was playing, but when I saw he wasn't, I just ran out there to save him. He didn't know how to swim, and he started fighting me. I didn't know what to do."
Jack Methvin, a BellSouth technician, was 200 yards away doing repair work when he saw the teenagers head for the lake. He continued about his business until Lazerick's brother came rushing up from the bank for help. "I just wanted to help that kid. He was all upset," Methvin said.
Methvin grabbed a 50-foot rope from his truck and raced for the bank. He handed one end of the rope tied around his waist to a bystander and jumped in.
"I don't think he could have been under more than five or six minutes, but I never saw him," Methvin said. "The water was about 10 feet deep, and it became extremely difficult to tread water. I probably did no more than seven or eight dives, but I was exhausted. I looked around closer to shore, but I couldn't find anything."
Methvin, 62, who lives in Greenwood, has worked with BellSouth 37 years. "I did the best I could for a man close to retirement," he said. "I've never had an experience like this on the job."
Lazerick's body was later recovered by the Grenada Fire Department's dive and rescue team.
Lazerick was the baby of his family and his sister, Roshenna Flowers, said he was good about taking care of the family.
"The whole week before he died he cooked us supper. Whenever I called him at night to walk me home from the club, he was there. I really miss him walking me home," Flowers said.
She vividly remembers racing and arguing over the phone.
"We use to always do that, because whoever got the phone could talk with their boyfriend or girlfriend all night," she laughed.
Lazerick's cousin Kimberly Hudson, 18, said that she misses him a lot.
"He liked joking around. Every time you saw him he was smiling."
Lazerick's death affects the whole community because almost everybody in Schlater is kinfolk, Hudson explained.
"Everyone's been closer than ever since Monday. Everybody's helping each other out."
Brandon said Lazerick liked to play basketball, and he was a good rapper. He also loved to fish.
Lazerick was an eighth-grader at Amanda Elzy High School.
He is survived by his mother, Gloria Flowers of Schlater; his father, Jimmy Abron of Schlater; three sisters, Atreshia Ramsey of Byhalia and Roshenna Flowers and Fannie Flowers, both of Schlater; and six brothers, Demetrius Flowers, Marcus Flowers, Raphaele Flowers, Ontario Flowers and Lakendrick Lewis, all of Schlater, and Terrence Abron of Senatobia.
Services were scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday in Schlater.
Brandon said he wished there had been more time. "I hadn't seen him for a long time. It was hard not seeing him for that long, then losing him that day."
