PANAMA CITY — Jerry Corneileus Wright was a devoted father and husband who worked excessively to provide for his family, family members said.
Wright, 64, of DeFuniak Springs, was removed from life support at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday at a local hospital after about a week of being unresponsive to stimuli following a crash. He was injured June 15 while driving his 2007 Chevrolet work van west on 388 near State 77. Wright had a “medical event” that caused him to cross lanes while he entered the tree line and struck several trees with the front end of his work van, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.
Family members said Wright suffered a heart attack behind the wheel, and after medical crews were able to resuscitate him, he was left brain dead.
“We tried to talk and motivate him, but his eyes would just roll back in his head,” Amanda Simmons, Wright’s eldest daughter, said Tuesday in an interview. “I couldn’t do it. As a daughter, it was heartbreaking.”
However, as Wright’s health declined, his liver failing, the family made the decision to remove him from life support.
“We decided there wasn’t a better day to let go of your dad than Father’s Day,” Simmons added.
Wright was a “workaholic,” Simmons said, working as a mechanic throughout the Panhandle. From Panama City to Pensacola, numerous auto-repair shops and garages recognized his Fleet-Mobil van rumbling down the road. And at the end of the day, Wright would have his wife sit down while he catered to the evening meal.
The work never stopped for him, Simmons said. The day of the crash, his van was loaded up and ready for him to make his rounds.
About a week later, nine of his closest family members gathered around his hospital bed to witness his final breaths. He was pronounced dead just before sunset Father’s Day, Simmons said.
“He was an honest, good dad,” she added. “He always said he loved us, and that was the last thing he told us — that he loved us.”