PINEHURST, Ga. — For the Everidge family, grief is still in the midst after losing Tripp nearly three years ago.
The former Central Georgia baseball standout may be gone but his spirit still remains now and throughout the year.
Tripp was a son, a brother, a father, friend, and husband.
Tripp Everidge was a standout first baseman and pitcher with Fullington Academy baseball.
“He loved it, played it from the time since he was 4-years-old. We never missed a game”, Tripp's mother, Jeanna, said.
“That’s how I grew up, was going to games watching him and being around all of his friends here,” his younger brother Adam said. “If he could have chosen one career, he probably would have been playing in the majors.”
Tripp and his high school teammates won the GISA single A state championship in 2007, wrapping up his career on the diamond.
After graduation he pursued another love — at 17, he picked up the family business of farming and flying.
“He loved the adrenaline that comes with it,” his wife Whitney said. “He woke up every morning when he was going to fly that day just super excited. His favorite thing to say was, 'I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning'.”
By becoming an aerial applicator, Tripp achieved a life long dream of becoming a third generation pilot like his grandfather Ronnie Everidge and his father Ron.
Tripp was pretty good at it too, performing applications over his own family cotton crop in Dooly County and several rice fields in Arkansas until tragedy struck.
Two summers ago, a report originally stated that Tripp lost control of his single engine AT-602, ultimately claiming the life of the 27-year-old husband and father.
An autopsy revealed that Tripp had a heart attack mid flight and died before he ever made landfall — a loss his family is still dealing with today.
“July the 8 at 2:50 p.m. in the afternoon is kind of like when our lives stopped or went into pause mood and it’s been a struggle ever since then," his father Ron said. "You expect to bury your parents, not to lose your children.”
Tripp’s legacy lives on in the form of a mini version of his only son, Axle.
The family says the 3-year-old is Tripp's spitting image, and a strong reason to keep going through these hard times.
“I remind Axle everyday of him. There’s not a minute of each day that doesn’t go by that I don’t think of him," Whitney said.
'It’s the last piece Tripp left on this Earth for us and yes I wish Tripp could see him," Adam said.
Whenever you saw Ron and Jeanna, you typically saw Tripp and his younger brother Adam too, always together as a family.
The same sentiment applies even with Tripp's physical absence. The family continues to grow together because having faith helps heal the pain.
"He always said if he ever had to leave this Earth, he want to leave doing something he enjoys doing," Ron said. "He left this Earth doing what he wanted to do.”
Tripp’s younger brother Adam is now in the process of becoming a certified aerial applicator to continue to the family tradition. Meanwhile the Everidge family is looking forward to celebrating Christmas and Tripp’s 30th birthday which would have been New Year’s Eve.
“I have no doubt in my mind where he is and that we will see him again and that’s what gets us through everyday,” Whitney said.
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