‘He was so special’: Father turns grief into novel after losing son in car crash
CACHE, Okla. (KSWO/Gray News) - A father who lost his young son in a car accident has grieved his loss and cherished his memories by writing a book.
After Chris Zerzavy’s son died, he said he was struggling to sleep and had no plans of writing anything.
“He was so special, and I don’t want to feel like 13 years was all he had,” Zerzavy said.
However, his wife encouraged him to start writing down his thoughts.
He found it therapeutic and took some leave from work to write.
“And I just wrote, everything that was there, everything that was bothering me,” he shared. “The struggles, the memories of Jon.”
The more he wrote, the more it started looking like a book.
“As I read it back, I thought, ‘Man, this journey is not one that’s just for me,’” he said. “I felt that Jon got robbed of his opportunity to share how special he was with the world, so as I was reading it, thinking that this might be a book, I thought, ‘OK, as his dad, I want him to live on. I know how special and significant he was and I want the world to know that.’”
Zerzavy said Jon was a special kid who was considerate, compassionate and mindful of others. He said his son loved wrestling, Jesus and his family.
“He wanted us to know that he loved us,” he said. “There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t tell us that he loved us. It was pretty special. Truly like no other.”
Zerzavy said Jon lived his life to the fullest every day up until he was killed in a car crash on his way home from a football game in September 2022.
“He had texted me that night and said that it was his best birthday yet, so he was having the time of his life,” Zerzavy said.
The impact from the crash caused Jon to be thrown from the vehicle that he was riding in.
Zerzavy said he and his wife were at home with friends when they learned of the crash and they immediately headed for the scene.
“We didn’t really know until we got there,” he said. “We got there, and there was a helicopter that was medi-flighting one of the passengers out. It wasn’t Jon, so they directed to where the crash site was, and when we got there, that’s when the trooper on site told us that he didn’t make it.”
He said his feelings dropped almost instantly, and he reflected that feeling in his book.
“A common theme of the book is when life takes you to rock bottom, at some point, you have to re-begin your climb,” Zerzavy said. “I think that is what my journey has been, is everything that I thought that I knew was important to me is not so important anymore after something like this happens.”
Zarzavy said he will share more about Jon and his journey with grief in a book signing for “Margin” on March 2 at Dayspring Community Church in Cache, Oklahoma around 12:30 until 3 p.m.
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