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PAGE 2A
BARROW JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016
Wife offallen officer keeps his memory alive
Remembering
Buddy
; 'L-
MELISSA AND BUDDY CHRISTIAN
By Zacli Mitcli am
Madison County Journal
T he wife and children
of Buddy Chris
tian will stand by his grave
March 22, the day of his
death, and once again let
the balloons rise high into
the clouds. It's a tradition
on special days — Father’s
Day, his birthday, the day of
his passing.
Buddy's wife, Melissa
Christian, said it’s a good
form of remembrance for
her children, Callie, 10, and
Wyatt, 7.
"Every anniversary of
what happened we release
balloons at the cemetery,’’
said Melissa, a Barrow
County native. "They (the
children) love that, especial
ly him (Wyatt). We have a
video of him. I think it was
the first anniversary of his
passing, we went out and
had a big memorial. And
there were like 200 balloons
and he and Callie helped let
them go. And he was just so
excited and jumping up and
down and you could hear
him saying ‘They’re going
to daddy.’”
Christian, a Madison
County resident, was an
Athens-Clarke Coun
ty Police officer, who lost
his life when he was shot
through the window of his
squad car by a fleeing crim
inal in 2011. His children
were 5 and 2 at the time.
Officer Tony Howard was
also shot and injured in the
incident. The shooter avoid
ed the death penalty but was
sentenced to life in jail.
Melissa said his passing is
the first thing she thinks of
every morning and the last
thing at night. She said the
calendar is a never-ending
cycle of reminders, like Cal-
lie’s recent tenth birthday,
which marked five years
with her daddy and five
without.
Despite the pains, Melissa
said she wants her children
to feel their dad's presence
and know about him. So she
works to keep his memory
alive.
"Yeah, it’s hard to find
that balance,” said Melis
sa. "How much do you talk
about it where they don’t get
upset? But you talk about it
enough so they don’t forget.
It’s hard to find that balance.
There’s always an overlap
some way, one way or the
other.”
‘PRETTY
GREEN EYES’
While Buddy's death
grabbed widespread head
lines, Melissa said it’s
his life that is truly worth
remembering. She said he
was special and she recog
nized that early on. She was
in the flag corps at Athens
Christian and Buddy went
to Madison County High
School. They first met at
an Athens Christian football
game.
"I thought he had the pret
tiest green eyes I had ever
seen,” said Melissa. "He
had long eyelashes that girls
would love to have.”
Shortly after meeting, the
two were set up on a double
date. They went to the Geor
gia Square Mall theater and
saw "A Few Good Men.”
The theater would later serve
as a police office, where
Buddy was stationed. They
then ate at Oscars on Baxter.
"We were pretty much
inseparable from then on,"
said Melissa.
The two got married in
1996. Melissa said Buddy
had the proposal all planned
out. He had asked her par
ents for permission to marry
her. But his big proposal
didn't go as planned.
"He picked me up to go
to a drive-in movie at Com
merce,” said Melissa. “Then
he thought the ring he got
was the wrong size, so he
had to tell me about it. So he
had to blow the surprise and
tell me about that. So I had
to go with him to the store
and he was all disappointed
that he didn’t have it all.
But he didn’t give it to me
then. He got it and we went
to the dinner and went to
the movie and I was like, all
right are you going to give
it to me already? He had
a Ford Bronco at the time
and he got in the floorboard
of the car (as the drive-in
movie played) and asked me
to marry him.”
A VARIETY OF JOBS
Buddy and Melissa spent
10 years married before they
had children. During that
time, Buddy worked as an
auto mechanic at Jefferson
Ford, at Reliance in Bogart,
as a janitor at their church,
Hull Baptist, as a construc
tion worker, grass cutter, as
a Jackson EMC meter reader
and lineman, as a repairman
for Athens Janitor Supply
Company. He served with
the Hull Volunteer Fire
Department and tried to get
on with the Athens-Clarke
County Fire Department.
Melissa said Buddy could
“do it all" and was eager to
help anyone with problems
they had.
“Any of his friends — it
didn’t have to be his friend
— but especially his friends,
if they called him and said,
‘Oh my water pipe broke,’
he’d not only say, ‘Well, this
is what you do,’ he’d say,
‘I'll be over there in five
minutes,'" said Melissa. "Or
electrical work. He could
do anything. So he helped
people wire their houses or
if they had some trouble.
The house we used to live
in, we renovated the barn
and did everything our
selves, plumbing, electron
ics, sheetrock, everything.
So all the work helped. He
would just help everybody,
the car issues, whatever. He
just picked all that up along
the way.”
Melissa said her husband
was a hard worker, but he
did find time to ride a motor
cycle.
“CBRs were always his
favorite,” said Melissa. “So
he had an old CBR Hur
ricane. And when we got
married, we bought our land,
so I sold my horses I had
at the time and he sold his
motorcycle. That’s how we
bought our land. We bought
new horses a few years later
and bought him a bike.”
In 2003, Buddy took a
job with the Athens-Clarke
County Police Department.
She said he was drawn to
help people and saw the
department as a way to do
that.
“He loved to make people
smile and crack a joke,” she
said. "That was his goal to
make someone smile each
day. That was one of the
reasons he wanted to go to
the police department. He
wanted to help others. The
fire department first and that
didn’t pan out, so he still
wanted to do some sort of
public service.”
Melissa said she still
hears from people who were
helped by Buddy.
“I still get stories from
people who say they only
met him once, but they
remember him, because he
helped their child or their
car was broken down and
he sat with them until some
one got there, or people in
severe emotional distress,”
she said. "When we first
met, he hated to talk in front
of people and was real quiet
and shy. Then it was just the
opposite. He loved to talk to
people and he talked his way
out of anything or into any
thing. That was just a gift he
had. So, it worked well with
people. He was just a great
people person. He loved to
do whatever he could to help
somebody else and that just
made him feel like he was
doing what God wanted him
to do.”
Buddy was the chaplain
at the Hull Volunteer Fire
Department and had aspira
tions of being the chaplain
at the police department. He
was in the process of getting
the paperwork approved for
that.
Melissa said she still hears
his distinctive laugh, "loud,
but not cackly” and she still
hears his little phrase, “How
bout cha?”
And she sees him in her
children.
BECOMING A DAD
Melissa said she was
recently telling Callie about
the day she was born. Melis
sa was already on mater
nity leave and was going
to be induced and Buddy
was working on the police
department's motorcycle
unit. The two met for a
quick bite to eat at Burger
King, "because they (offi
cers) always want some
thing that’s kind of quick.”
The two met later and ate
at Wendy’s near St. Mary's
and then checked in to the
hospital.
"And she was born the
next morning at 10:24,”
said Melissa. "And it was
funny because that’s a 10
code for you're finished with
your call. So he was dying
laughing about that, a 10-24.
So when he went out to
the waiting room to tell our
family she was here, he was
so overcome with emotion
that he couldn’t even say
anything. He had his shirt
on that had her little feet
on it and that was all he
could do was hold the shirt
out and obviously she was
here. So they snapped the
picture. But that was my
favorite memory to tell. She
stamped her feet on his shirt
but on his heart too that day.
And she is daddy’s little girl.
And anything she wanted,
she had him wrapped around
her finger.”
After Callie’s birth.
Buddy switched from patrol
work to the traffic engineer
ing department so he could
spend more time with the
family.
"But he just wasn't
happy,” said Melissa. "He
was happy to be off with us,
but he just missed helping
others and feeling like his
life was making a differ
ence.”
Three years later, when
Wyatt was born. Buddy went
back to patrol work.
"When he went back,
then he had the crazy hours
again,” said Melissa. “So the
evenings we didn't see him.
But on his days off, Callie
had started Pre-K and he
would take them somewhere
or spend as much time as
he could with them. He
wouldn’t just go have a fun
day. He was also still work
ing at the church.
He would be as much
a part of everything as he
could be. He made sure to
kiss them at night and eat
lunch with them when he
could. And we’d meet him
for dinner when we could. A
lot of the restaurants remem
ber us, because we would
meet him for dinner.”
Melissa said Buddy want
ed his kids to have faith in
God and to be saved.
"They both are saved and
have been baptized now
and I know Buddy is proud,
because that’s something
Buddy talked about as the
greatest thing we can do as
a parent to make sure that is
taken care of,” said Melis
sa. “So Callie got baptized
on our anniversary Feb. 17,
2013. And then Wyatt was
baptized on Feb. 17, 2015.
So those are little God winks
that I call them. You just
know them when you see
them. There are little hints of
things. I just let them tell me
when they were ready (to be
baptized). It just happened
that both of them were ready
and it was close to that day
and it just all worked out and
it just made that day more
special again that it was
something we could share
on that day.
She said God has helped
lead them through the pain
of Buddy’s absence.
"Our faith has led us
through this,” said Melissa.
"If I didn’t know that I’d see
him again one day, I don’t
know how people do it that
don’t know that.”
A ‘DATE-NIGHT’
WEEKEND
The weekend before
Buddy's death included an
unusual “date night.” She
said she and Buddy didn’t
spend much time alone
together because they
enjoyed being with their
children.
“That’s why you have
them to spend time with
them and especially with
his schedule, we wanted to
spend as much time with
them as we could,” said
Melissa.
But the couple took an
evening for themselves and
it started with Buddy trim
ming their horses’ feet.
“That was another thing
he learned to do was to be a
farrier,” said Melissa. "And
that’s hard too with the kids.
So we trimmed our horses’
feet and then we went out to
dinner to Loco’s off Atlanta
Highway, then we went to
the mall and walked around
and that was great, because
we never did that. Then we
went and picked up the kids
and then church on Sunday
and I can remember every
thing. And then Monday was
like a normal day.”
‘AND THEN
TUESDAY...’
Melissa took the kids to
school on the day Buddy
died.
“And he called me at
lunchtime and I was about
to go to lunch and he was
at lunch and he called me,”
said Melissa. “We always
talked a couple of times a
day. So he called me and
told me he was going to
come straight home from
work. He had started doing
exercises at work, because
they had a gym at the police
department there. He said
he was going to come home
and wash the motorcycle.
He told me he would see me
then.”
She said he had actually
called earlier and left a mes
sage on her phone, but she
didn’t hear it until later.
Melissa left her job at the
University of Georgia Vet
School to get some lunch
that day.
"On the way back from
lunch, my mom called and
asked if I had talked to
Buddy,” said Melissa. “She
said there had been two
police officers that had been
shot. I told her I talked to
him at 12:30 and by this
time it was close to two,
when he was supposed to
get off from work. And I
told her it was almost two
and he rode his motorcycle,
so he obviously can’t talk to
you. So I said I’ll try to call
him, but he’s probably on
his bike.”
But Melissa began to feel
apprehensive and then espe
cially so after a friend called.
"Then a friend of mine
called me and he works in IT
at the vet school and he said
‘Where are you?' and I said,
‘I’m headed back to the vet
school,’ and he said, ‘O.K.
I’ll meet you there." And I
thought, ‘Why does he need
to meet me?" And then I got
to thinking his wife was a
dispatcher. And I was think
ing, ‘Wait a minute, this isn't
adding up quite right." But I
tried not to.. .1 was like.. .I’ll
just wait. I was thinking,
‘Oh it’s his arm. He’s at
the hospital.' Something like
that. I just didn’t know what
to think. I was trying to just
calm down.”
When Melissa got back
to the Vet school, her worst
fears were confirmed.
See Christian on Page 3A
When Dr. Dale Threadgill, retired Dean of Engineering at UGA, was diagnosed
with atrial fibrillation (AFib), he elected to receive treatment from a new heart
lab at Athens Regional Medical Center. The new technology allows doctors to
dramatically reduce radiation exposure by close to 90%. “I’m an engineer, I like to
look at doing things differently,” said Dr. Threadgill, “I have always felt that Athens
Regional provided excellent healthcare. That’s why, when I retired, I elected to
remain close to Athens.”
Dale Threadgill
To make an appointment with
Athens Regional Cardiology,
please call 706.475.1700.
We put people first.
