Why am I checking my e-mail, hoping he wrote me a last goodbye, and why am I praying he'll get online? :( I make no sense....

Here's the rest of the obituary, and an article.... I think when I get home I'm going to go leave some flowers at his intersection. I won't be home ontime to go to his service... Kat suggested flying home earlier, and I would think about it, but I'd need Laurie home. I couldn't go alone.

Jeremiah Zebulon Kranz -- Zumbro Falls
Thursday, August 14, 2003

ZUMBRO FALLS -- A memorial service for Jeremiah Zebulon Kranz will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Zumbro Community Church in rural Zumbro Falls. The body was cremated.

Mr. Kranz, 18, of Zumbro Falls, an employee of Fazoli's in Rochester, died Tuesday (Aug. 12, 2003) as a result of an auto accident near Oronoco.

Born Aug. 30, 1984, in Rochester, he grew up in Zumbro Falls and attended Zumbrota-Mazeppa schools. He had been a chef at Sandy Point Supper Club, and at the time of his death was a chef for Fazoli's in Rochester. He enjoyed cars, music and video games.

Survivors include his parents, Keith and Mary Kranz of Zumbro Falls; a brother, Joshua of Rochester; his paternal grandfather, Larry Kranz of West Virginia; his paternal grandmother, Sandie Shores of Zumbro Falls; his maternal grandparents, N. Carl and Nancy Anderson of Pine Island; and a maternal great-grandmother, Isabel Spooner of Pine Island.

Mahn Family Funeral Home-Rochester Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Memorials are suggested to Hiawatha Homes of Rochester.

ORONOCO -- An 18-year-old Zumbro Falls man was killed and two others injured in a two-car accident on U.S. 52 Tuesday afternoon.

The State Patrol said Jeremiah Zebulon Kranz was westbound on Olmsted County Road 18, crossing U.S. 52, when his car and a vehicle driven by Amy Suzanne Thibodeau, 33, of Rochester, which was northbound on U.S. 52, collided in the intersection.

Kranz was reported dead at the scene. His passenger, Dillon Mathew Bera, 25, of Albert Lea, was flown to Saint Marys Hospital where he was listed in fair condition this morning.

Thibodeau was taken by ambulance to Saint Marys. She was in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said today.

State Patrol Capt. Kevin Daly said it's not known if Kranz saw Thibodeu's vehicle.

"He never made it into the intersection," Daly said. "It was a T-bone crash in the left lane."

The accident occurred just south of Olmsted County Road 12-112. That crossing will be replaced with an interchange in a $26 million Minnesota Department of Transportation project in 2005. Also included in the project is an overpass near JC's Korner Mart on County Road 12.

Crashes on the highway that bisects the city of about 900 are not uncommon. There have been 19 accidents at the intersection of U.S. 52 and Olmsted County Road 18 in the last five years, 15 of which were property damage accidents. The other four involved minor injuries, said Brian Jergenson, public affairs coordinator for MnDOT. There had not been a fatal accident at the intersection before Tuesday, he said.

This accident comes at a particularly delicate time for Oronoco and Rochester, which are anticipating about 50,000 visitors this weekend for Gold Rush Days.

As in years past, Olmsted County deputies will be on extra patrol in Oronoco controlling both foot and vehicle traffic.

Olmsted County Sgt. Steve Kazeck said deputies will enforce a special 45 mph speed zone from Tilly's Tavern to approximately a half-mile north of Oronoco. They will also control the intersection of U.S. 52 and Olmsted County Road 12, stopping traffic to let cars cross the highway.