A bright light put out too soon.
Caleb came into the world as a surprise, since his mother didn’t tell anyone except his dad that she was pregnant; when he left this world, he surprised everyone again.
Caleb was born with his tongue connected at the very end, enabling him to move both sides separately, like a snake. He liked being goofy and making others laugh. Caleb loved all animals, especially the family dog, Maggie May. He had turtles, lizards, cats, birds and even a snake that slept beside him when it was just a foot long.
Caleb also had his own sense of style. He loved wearing an Elvis jumpsuit, complete with fringe–a gift from his aunt. He wore it until it fell apart. Once, Caleb’s grandfather took his older brother, Tyler, and him for haircuts. Caleb came home with a two-inch pink mohawk. Tyler and Caleb were only 16 months apart. They played baseball and football together through middle school. In elementary school, Caleb’s football team finished as the runner-up in the state championship.
A photo of Caleb was featured on the front cover of an Oklahoma biker magazine. Decked out in all his riding gear, he posed on his motorcycle in the snow, with cowboy boots. He wrecked that bike the first time he rode it, running it into a tree, bending the handlebars and tire rim, and bruising his face. But he got right back on it. Caleb loved riding his motorcycle and singing at the top of his lungs as he went.
Caleb was always ready for an arm-wrestling match and loved watching cartoons, drawing and gaming, especially with his friend, Michael Jones. Caleb met Michael playing online. At first, they were rivals, but eventually, they became good friends. Michael said Caleb was one of the first friends he trusted, and that he looked up to Caleb. Even now, Michael says he thinks about how Caleb would be playing the game and Michael used that to push himself to win or get better.
He was kind and a loyal friend. Just 19 years old, Caleb was still figuring out what he wanted to do in life when his life was cut short. His family didn’t know he was using drugs until after his death. They believe he got them from a man who was like a second father to Caleb.
“I’ll never forgive myself for trusting this person with the only things I have ever got right in this world,” his mother, Keli, said. “Never could I have imagined this adult would be the one who was getting and supplying Caleb with drugs. I don’t think (Caleb) knew how dangerous taking meth and heroin together was because he truly trusted this person and believed that he wouldn’t give him anything that would hurt him, let alone kill him.”
Tyler and Caleb’s little sister, Riley, miss their brother. Keli misses Caleb’s smile and all he meant to their family, and the uncle and father she believes he would have become.
“My dreams for Caleb were for him to find his path in life and grow into all I knew he was and would be,” Keli said. “He was robbed from everyone, including himself. I’d give anything to walk into his room and see him take his earphones off one ear and say, ‘Hey, mom’ with his one-sided smile. My wild child who always was himself.”
Caleb’s mother, Keli Martin, provide the information for this narrative.
Jan. 11, 2001-Oct. 10, 2020-Age 19
Portrait Artist: Jeremy Hebbel
Narrative Writer: Lynne Mixson
