WESTPHALIA, Texas — The emotions following the death of 15-year-old Bryce Fikes are still raw and too real for many, including his cousin Delaney Wilde who said she has trouble sleeping at night.
"It's hit me pretty hard, I've had some pretty rough nights," Wilde said. "Family does come together and helps you push through all of that."
Fikes died Monday after he was hit by an SUV while running with the Rosebud-Lott High School cross country team.
"I just lost it, I lost my best friend, I lost my cousin," Wilde said, fighting back tears as she recalled the moments she heard her cousin had died.
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Wednesday morning, Wilde and Colby Coker spent some time at Meyer Swine Farm, a place Fikes knew well as part of 4-H. It's where he got his pig he'd been working with up until his death.
"He's been showing ever since he was eight like most of us have, I mean as soon as we could get in the ring, we wanted to do it our whole life," Coker said.
Wilde said Fikes loved his pig and spent every chance he could making sure it was ready for the Westphalia County Fair each September.
"Bryce was always the one that got in the show ring and did what he needed to do. He was always out there with his pigs," she said.
Both Wilde and Coker agreed that Fikes was different. He lit up a room and would do anything for anyone at any time, that's just the kind of kid he was.
"He just always made you smile and brightened up the room. There was never a dull moment with him," Wilde recalled of her cousin.
Coker said he'd never met anyone like him and that he might not ever again.
"Just a young nice guy that would do anything for anybody that he ever met and there's not many people like that left," Coker said. "You don't even have to ask him to do something, he's doing it before you even ask him to do it."
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Wilde and Coker plan to honor Fikes during this year’s 4H County Fair with tribute T-shirts that everyone will wear. They said while Fikes won't be there, his pig will be, and they plan to honor him by showing it for him.
"It's an honor because not everybody gets to step in the barn with his pigs and see what he did with them and then have a chance to show them on his behalf," Wilde said
Coker said he's sad he won't get to see Fikes do his thing, like he's always done, since he was 8-years-old.
"It's just sad to not be able to see him show his pig in September, next month he would have been showing his pig at the county fair and he doesn't get to do that this year," he said.
Wilde said she drove by the spot where her cousin died for the first time on Tuesday and she said it was a reminder that nothing will ever be the same. Family, she said, and her faith is what will pull her through no matter how hard it gets to be at times.
"It's not fair in a way," Wilde admitted. "It will be okay though because we just have to pray and know that he's in a better place."