A year ago this month, the Pee Dee lost one of its deputies. This month, his family got a home.
Devin Mason was twenty-seven years old and had been a Darlington County sheriff's deputy for only about seven months when he was killed in the line of duty last July, answering a call in the Lamar area in the middle of the night. He left behind his fiancée, Madison Church, and their infant son, Brooks. By the accounts of the people who knew him, he was a man of faith who wanted to do right by his family and his community, the kind of young officer who made the people around him feel a little safer.
Earlier this month, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation paid off a home right here in Florence and handed the keys to Madison and Brooks, free and clear, through the program it runs for the families of fallen first responders. Madison said she was in complete shock, that a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and that making a real home for their son had always mattered to her more than almost anything.
It does not undo what that family lost. Nothing could. But it means a young mother and a little boy get to build their life in a house that is fully theirs, in a community that decided to look after its own. That is worth slowing down for.
Also Worth Knowing
Summer baseball is in full swing. The Florence Flamingos are deep into their Coastal Plain League season, and one of the bright spots is Jackson Moore, the former Hartsville standout and Clemson player who just made the league's All-Star roster in a Flamingos uniform. There are few better cheap summer nights than a ballgame under the lights close to home.
Three kittens, one happy ending. Florence County Fire Rescue got a call out to the Circle K on East Palmetto Street and rescued three kittens that had crawled up into a vehicle. Not every call ends this sweetly. This one did.
Better water coming out of the tap. If you have ever run your faucet and gotten a little discoloration, the city has been working on it. Crews recently installed a new lime silo at the GE groundwater treatment plant to steady the water chemistry and clean up the color and quality coming through the pipes. Unglamorous, and exactly the kind of thing that quietly makes daily life better.
A dry summer, so look out for each other. The Pee Dee is under serious drought and the heat has been relentless, which means a higher fire risk and a real reason to go easy on the irrigation. Check on older neighbors, keep the pets and the garden watered when you can, and be careful with anything that sparks.
History older than the country, right in our backyard. As the nation marks its 250th birthday, it is worth remembering that the Pee Dee was Swamp Fox country. Francis Marion ran his Revolutionary War campaigns through these swamps and rivers, and the university just down the road still carries his name. Part of the story of American independence was written right here.