Shirley Chandler Meeks (October 10, 1961 - December 4, 2002) This site is in loving memory of my sister, Shirley Gayle Meeks. Those that knew her loved her, and everyone upon their meeting instantly liked her. She loved her family, husband, babies, friends, the elderly, her pets, wild animals, gardening, doing needlework and crafts, reading from her Bible daily and helping those less fortunate. Shirley was so multi-talented, I don't think there was anything she couldn't do, despite having severe diabetes since age 8. Her eyesight kept getting worse from her diabetes that she had laser surgery on them twice. Sores on her lower legs and ankles that wouldn't heal. Carpel tunnel surgery twice. She could cook, sew, knit, crochet, macrame, quilt, upholster, cain, refinish furnature, paint, garden, can vegetables, strip tobacco, etc. She worked in a warehouse an hours drive from her home. After a few years, she decided to go to college for a degree having to do with computers. She wanted to be able to make more money and land a job closer to home, which was on top of Bald Knob Road in the Battletown / Payneville, Kentucky area of Meade County. She received her diploma after 4 years (graduating at the top of her class and always on the Dean's list) but was still unable to find local employment. Only the "big" cities looking for the qualifications she now posessed were Louisville and Elizabethtown. So she continued working at Riverport, in Louisville. An hours drive either way and her eyesight continued to worsen. But she managed very well for a number of years, never complaining and always with a smile. Then, bad things started happening to her. Her stomach started bothering her. Each day the cramping continued to get worse and worse. Whenever she could manage to eat, it wouldn't stay down. Her color was terrible and she was very weak. The local country doctor couldn't find anything wrong, suggesting it might simply be nerves. She finally decided to stay with our parents for a while, who lived very close to her work. Within days her condition started improving emencely, and within a few weeks she felt as good as new. Looking back now, I believe that she was slowly being poisioned. In the small picture below I can see that she didn't feel well.  
A picture of Shirley and of her butterfly garden. Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  | (...continued from column 1) Not too long after she returned home to her husband, she started having serious problems with her car. She lived at the top of a hill with a pond at the end of the very steep driveway. Her brakes were cut at least twice up there on that isolated hill. Of course she didn't know until she was suddenly unable to stop, but managed to turn the car and steer it into some trees. A few weeks later, a couple more serious problems happened while driving her car. She never dreamed that her husband might want to do her harm. After all, he loved her very much, she said, even though he was getting moodier and moodier as days and weeks passed. He had started accusing her of various untruthful things and name calling, and was becoming very paranoid. A couple of their only neighbors up there on that hill were also becoming unfriendly to Shirley. She figured out they were up to no good in the wooded acres she and her husband owned. She sometimes would catch glimpses of them at night, running with empty cans and such on her property. She finally had a good idea of what was going on behind her back. They were making meth. She warned them to stay off her property. When she confronted them, they threatened to kill her. She told the family that she would not be ran off her property. We begged her to move out, move in with us or close to us and her job. But she still could not believe that her husband had anything to do with the goings on on their thickly wooded property, but that he was scared to death of "something or someone". Whenever they both were away from home, "someone" with a key would come in, eat or whatever, and not hide the fact that they had. (The neighbor that found their bodies, perhaps?) As weeks went by, Shirley figured out that her husband had developed a meth habit. She, being the loving and kind hearted person she was, wanted to "save" him. She loved him and believed that he loved her, too, although he was becoming increasingly irrational, moody and paranoid. Tuesday, December 3rd 2002. Shirley was driving to work and reached a very steep hill when her car started vibrating terribly and was impossible to control. It felt, she said, like the front end and the rear end were coming apart. What she didn't know, in fact, was that there had been another car tampering. We believe that she called her husband to come pick her up, as she was about 10 miles from home. We're not sure about anything after that exept for this: She called her work saying she wouldn't be in because her car had broke down. Wednesday and Thursday, she called in to work saying the same thing. (Why didn't her husband drive her to work? He worked a different shift than she did.) When Friday came and there was no call to work, her co-workers feared the worst we learned later. Sunday, December 8, 6PM. A neighbor with a key (we were told) entered their home and said that he found them dead in the living room. They each had suffered a single fatal gunshot with a black powder pistol that belonged to him. The bathroom had purpously been set on fire, but it was put out by a fire extinguisher before the fire reached any other rooms. The story we were told by the police was nothing like the stories told by other parties. A security camera they had in the living room had been ripped from the wall and was no where to be found. Her pistol (amoung many other things including keys that were on her keyring) was missing. Their safe had been broken into. There was no crime tape. There was no investigation. The police never contacted us like they said they would. They ruled (that very night) that their deaths were murder followed by suicide, but I doubt that his hands were even tested for gun residue. Or that anyone was questioned. I found Shirley's car a few days later, where she had managed to pull it safely off the steep and winding country highway. Yes, it had been tampered with. The rear end was supposed to have been seperated from the rest of the car while being driven. We love and miss Shirley so very, very much. What a senseless and horrible thing to happen to the sweetest and kindest person you'd ever have the pleasure of meeting. John 14:2-3 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. |
