Stephen and Tracey Willetts pose for a car selfie posted on July 11, 2024. | Source: Facebook/Tracey Parker Willetts
A Relative Remembered the Family Before the Losses
After Stephen and Tracey’s deaths, Tracey’s second cousin Fuller Royal shared a family photograph believed to have been taken around 1999 or 2000. His showed a period when Stephen, Tracey, Zack, and Colby were all together.
Fuller wrote that it broke his heart to think that the family now existed only in the memories of people who had known them. He remembered Tracey as someone who regularly visited and checked on his parents.
His connection to Stephen stretched back years. The two attended the University of North Carolina Wilmington and worked as emergency medical technicians with Whiteville Rescue.
Fuller remembered Stephen as a skilled EMT whom he trusted during emergency calls and said Stephen had helped and saved many people while working with the rescue squad. There were lighter memories, too.
Stephen appeared in Fuller’s film “James Bonded:000.” The two repeatedly watched “Caddyshack” and went to see “Taps” and “Excalibur” at least three times each.
“I can’t begin to imagine how much that hurt and what they went through,” Fuller wrote. “I pray they are reunited with their boys and that everyone is whole, safe, and at peace.”
