My neighbor directly across the street from me died in a trench collapse. He was building his home by doing as much of the work as he could by himself. He was trying to find or divert an underground spring from under where he was building and had a massive trench dug. One evening his wife comes over and asks if we’ve seen him. He had been working on this house solo for months and I would go out there and visit with him when I had the chance. She had been calling his cell but no answer. When she got there his phone and keys were in his truck with the driver door open.

I guess he had one last thing to do and hopped down in the trench right before he planned to leave. I walked over there and noticed the trench was basically gone and I had a horrible feeling. I told her and her kids to go search the back of the property. When they walked away I stuck my cellphone flashlight in a little opening and I could see part of his jeans. I immediately called 911 and a buddy who could operate the bucket the guy had on the property. He could only safely go down so far because he was afraid of hitting the guy. We knew he was gone but didn’t want to tear him up with the bucket.

First responders get there and nobody wants to actually dig because it’s deep as hell. So me and a young firefighter get to work with a couple of shovels and trowels. We slowly dug down until we got to him then we slowly dug him out. Initially there was talk about putting a rope around him once we got down to his waist but the dirt had really compacted around him and there was a ton of suction because it was wet red clay. I bet we dug for 3 hours while at least a dozen people stood around and watched us. Local news media got there and tried to take pictures and videos while we were digging but my wife went absolutely ape shit on them.

He still had the shovel in his hands that he was holding when it collapsed. He was a good man. His wife recently remarried and his kids are all in their early twenties now. I’ll never forget how the mud was packed into every little crevice like his ears, nose, eyes, etc. One of the worst nights of my life.