To: The POV-Ray Community,


  It is my very sad duty to share with you a tragedy that has happened
to someone in our community and a member of the POV-Team.

  Ron Parker's 9 year old son Phillip was walking across an ice covered
pond near his home Saturday afternoon which subsequently broke under his
weight. It was 45 min. before divers were able to reach him and he died
early Sunday morning as a result of this accident. I have attached an
article from a local news paper that describes the event and the extent
of how this tragedy is affecting Ron and his family.

  Because of this accident Ron will most likely be absent from the news
groups for the next week or two. If you would like to discuss this here
you are welcome to though Ron mentioned that he will likely not be reading
the groups for a while. If you would prefer to extend your sympathies to
Ron and his wife Julie personaly, through e-mail, he has informed me that
it would be ok to do so.

  If you do send Ron an e-mail please use this e-mail address -
ron### [at] povrayorg


 I wish I could say more, or somehow lessen the grief for Ron and his
family, but for once I find myself speechless and would like Ron to
know that our thoughts and our sympathies are with him.


-- Ken Tyler



Local News Article:

  Boy dies after falling through ice

 Grieving mother remembers happier times as she copes with the loss of her
only child.

By Darnell J. Compton of The News@Sentinel

  Just last week, Julie Parker took her 9-year-old son, Phillip Parker,
to Wendy's for a kid's meal and a toy "time capsule." Inside was a paper
asking, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

  That was when Julie Parker learned her son wanted to be an astronaut.

  Today, her only child is gone.

  Phillip Parker died Sunday, a day after he fell through the ice of a pond
in a subdivision in northern Allen County. The boy was flown to Parkview
Hospital by Samaritan Helicopter in critical condition -- he had been
underwater at least 45 minutes before he was pulled from the water's bottom,
said conservation officer Steve Gerber.

  A witness saw the boy fall through the ice about 3:20 p.m. and called 911
from Lima Road, near Cook Road. The boy's head and an arm rose above the water,
then he disappeared.

  Divers found the boy, and looked for others, but found no one, Gerber said,
noting a group of children was playing on the pond earlier in the afternoon.

  The ice on the pond was about an inch thick, Gerber said.

  Phillip's mother wasn't certain it was her son until she was at Parkview
Hospital and they showed her his clothes.

 "I knew exactly what he was wearing that day," she said.

  The boy was taken to intensive care before surgery, where his mother saw
him lying there, unconscious. "I told him we loved him, and we were there
for him."

  She still expects her son to return home, and knows it will be difficult
to adjust to his absence.

  "This sort of thing happens to other people's kids," she said. "It's kind
of quiet around here.

  Her son was quick-witted, funny and talkative. If he wasn't out in-line
skating, or with other kids in their Mill Stone subdivision, he was playing
checkers or was at a computer, playing "SimPark," or "Age of Empire,"
challenging simulation games.

  The third-grader from Washington Elementary School was the class clown,
she said.

  "He had a real witty sense of humor," she said.

  She laughs as she remembers him playing with his Legos. His last creation
was a two-tailed elephant robot.

  "He had a vivid imagination," she said. "There's not a corner of this house
that doesn't have a piece of him in it. Clothes, toys ... everything reminds
me of him.

  "I feel like I am kind of still waiting for him to run around to the front
door. I know that he won't."

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