https://youtu.be/5FP0U1bKags
As life has it, many of us set goals and make “bucket lists,” full of things we want to accomplish, see and do before this short life ends. Twenty-one-year-old Taylor Thyfault did the same.
While still in high school, Taylor made a list of goals he wanted to achieve, and he got to work doing them all with the support and love of his best friend and closest confidant—his mom, Carole Adler.
The two were extremely close, and Carole watched proudly as her son joined the Army, then set out to become a Colorado State Patrol officer. She admits his dreams always scared her, but she knew if anyone could achieve them, Taylor could.
Remembering Taylor Thyfault
On May 23, 2015, Taylor was in his final stages of cadet training with the Colorado State Patrol. He was on assignment with Trooper Clinton Rushing, investigating a crash on a Colorado highway, when they were warned of a high-speed police chase headed their way.
Though they deployed stop sticks to divert the suspect, the driver missed them, and plowed through the investigation scene, hitting both men. Trooper Rushing was critically injured, and Taylor Thyfault died on scene. But not before the selfless 21-year-old warned a tow-truck driver at the scene of the original accident to get out of the way—a warning that saved the man’s life.
Carole lost her best friend and son that day, but she considers Taylor a hero.
Carole Adler
“And if you asked him, he’d do it again, because he sacrificed himself, for someone else,” she said. “He lived, he dreamed and breathed that.”
Carole says she knows that she was the last person her son texted on that fateful day. The two were extremely close, and not only did they talk regularly throughout the day, they did a lot of life together—workouts, coffee on Friday mornings, things that best friends do.
“Every day, it hits me like a ton of bricks, when I can’t text him,” Carole said. “We’re just that close. Everything that happened in his life was in my life.”
After Taylor passed away, Carole continued sending him text messages. Some were short and said things like, “I love you,” and, “I miss you.” Of course, it was always just a one-way conversation, but it helped her feel close to her son.