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Show DAILY HERALD Sunday. August 31, 2008 Heart and, at 33, became a certified emergency medical techniciaa ; - But it never seemed to be Continued from A 1 enough. On March 15, 1995, the ccuple got As word of his death spread, the into a huge argument. Cheryl told Internet lit up with the story of the Terry that she couldnt stay married heart that had been twice silenced by to a man who made less money than suicide and the woman who'd lost she did. At some pant, her son Ton- - . the same heart twice. Reporters and my recalls, she took off her wedding bloggers waxed on abort cellular ring and threw it over the fence. ' By morning, they had agreed that memory and whether the organ Cottle should leave. somehow held a "suicide gene. As he prepared to depart, Cottle Nonsense, thought Cottles sister. The brain is where the conscience re- went into the bathroom. There was a sides, where love and loss are feh; the gunshot.' heart is Just a pump. The slug entered Cottles As far as she was concerned, skull just behind the right ear. There j Grahams death was less about her was no exit wound. On March 20, after four days in the brothers heart than about Cheryl the woman with whom both men had trauma unit at Medical University of chosen to share it. South Carolina in Charleston, Cheryl agreed to take Terry off life support and donate his organs. Terry's tragedy , About 60 miles to the southwest, In (988, Terry Cottle was living . Sonny Graham got the ! call he had been waiting more than a with his wife and their two young 'year for. daughters in one of the subsidized apartment buildings they managed in Jasper County, S.C Cottles boss had Sonny falls in love , a daughter a petite beauty with auburn hair and hazel eyes. Remus T. "Sonny" Graham was a big man on Hilton Head Cheryl Sweat had recently had her three-yemarriage annulled on . As longtime manager of the central plant for Hargray Communications, grounds that her husband was married to someone else. It was he who -- Hilton Head's telephone service pro-called Cottles wife sometime later, vider, he knew just about everyone saying, "I just want you to know that on the barrier island. His Brunswick stew was a staple at community your husband is seeing my wife." Terry Cottle filed for divorce. Nine events. The local high school football field was named in his honor. days after it was granted, in May A native of Lyons, Ga., the red1989, he and Cheryl were married. At first, things seemed wonderful. headed Air Force veteran was an avid hunter and fisherman what Terry adopted Cheryls two sons, , and Timmy. A daughter, buddy Bill Carson called a "mans . Christopher ' man." Jessica, was bora Cottle worked while his new wife studied for her He and Elaine, his wife of more ! than three decades, had two children, nursing degree. In late 1994, the couple graduated Gray and Michelle. But in. 1994, Graham contracted a from a single-wid- e trailer to a new doublewide in Moncks Corner, S.C. virus that damaged his heart muscle. His name went on two transplant lists. Terry had dropped out of high : school but earned an equivalent Around 5 p.m. on March 20, Graham learned that a heart had become diploma. He got a real estate license available. Cottles, it turned out, was dose to a perfect match. . er . 1 . . FrontRunner came from buses, meaning an even smaller percentage of traffic was newly taken off the freeway. In contrast, Legacy High-way opens Sept. 13, and the. : stretch through Davis County is projected to carry up to 30,000 vehicles a day. The cost of Legacy is roughly the same as Frontrunner North. We have the perfect experiment. We have rail and then three months later we have the freeway open. And bah ironically at the same cost, Cham- berlainsaid. Continued from A 1 : . They seem happy To hear the Utah Transit Authority tell it, things couldn't be better with its newly born FrontRunner North commuter rail system between Salt Lake City and Qgdea Ridershlp was above expectations in June at about 7,800 trips per day.' Rkt ers have given it rave reviews. They've ga federal accolades' for their efforts and federal dollars for expansion of four light-rai- l TRAX lines and. FrontRunner South. Media reports are glowing, politicians are smiling. But Chamberlain is blunt.. ' "It's a fraud. ' That claim is made on the basis of cost per vehicle removed from the freeway. . married again. Husband So. 4, John B. Johnson, Jr., was a corrections officer at the Georgia prison where Cheryl had been working as a contract nurse. But within a year, that marriage, too, began to crumble. On Thanksgiving 2003, sheriff's deputies were . called, and bah husband and wife accused the other of domestic abuse. During a Yuletide reconciliation, Johnson says, a chilling incident occurred. One evening, he says, Cheryl began talking about suicide. When she failed to return from a bathroom trip, Johnson went to investigate and says he found her clutching his 22 :. caliber revolver. As they wrestled over the weapon, Johnson says, the children and Cher-yl- 's mother rushed in. He says Cheryl told them that he had gotten the gun and was threatening to shoot himself. By the time their divorce was final in August 2004, Johnson says, Cheryl was already wearing Grahams ring. ' They married Dec, 8, 2004. A few days before their second wedding anniversary, the couple attended an event on Hilton Head to ' honor the families of organ donors. The Island Packet ran a story under the headline, "A love story unlike any told..." . ' Its true what it says in the Bible," Cheryl told the newspaper. "If you live Gods will and give with a happy heart, you will reap the rewards." r Graham said Cheryl was the answer to his prayers. ., Right up to his death, Graham was making plans for the future. Hed invited friends down to fLsh and was talking about an upcoming golf tournament. . What no one knew was that Graham had drawn up a will , , Larry Lockley says he went fishing with his uncle the last week of February, and afterward Graham showed him the will and asked if hed be alternate executor. .. "Aint nothing wrong, is there? the happy-go-luck- A few days later, Graham's loaned heart would stop beating for good. Aftermath In late April, shortly after Graham's death, Cheryl visited Tomme Hilton, an old friend. Over drinks, she complained that Graham "didn't leave me a dime." Apparently, Graham had blown through his retirement funds and run up large debts ubout triple his assets trying, as he once put it, "to keep Cheryl in the style she wants to live. Cheryl Graham did not respond to repeated requests seeking comment. But those who know her say she did not act like a grieving widow. On her now ('Spaces her photo changed deactivated from a sweetly smiling portrait to pictures of her on a lake or drinking beer with friends. Her screen name changed, too, from simply "Cheryl to PTEttY LAdy, then "BeaUliFuL . . . ,v . . ' a More roads? ' : . . . . . . cause we sit in traffic, he said! By using money for rail, we are ensuring gridlock in the future." , Ecdes counters that it takes much more space to build . roads. "How many Legacys do , you build? We can onjy build so much in terms of asphalt, he said. Plus, the voters have spoken : with the approval of a quarter-- . cent sales tax to help fund transit, as well as roads. It seemed to be something that people wanted," he said. The tax passed by 69 percent." . . nd , account noticed that shortly after Graham's death, she posted a man's photo identifying him as her "new boyfriend." A flirtatious message on the man's Web page, from her account, was dated March 26 ' six days before Graham's death. The man confirmed to The Associated Press that agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had interviewed him. I le told them he no longer sees Cheryl. The Toombs County coroner ruled Graham's death a suicide; the GUI still hasn't closed the case. good for up to 50 years without a major overhaul. Roads, ... oi the her hand, require constant repair. . . Chamberlains solution to traffic problems is to build more roads, instead of sinking money into solutions that have questionable impact on gestion. Mountain View Cor- ridor, for example, should be instead of waiting for funding. years "The real losers are us, be- - ' . fast-tracke- i . The car dealer Chamberlain has tried to ". speak to lawmakers, UTA executives and the public about his concerns. , Hes a former repairman now in the used-ca- r business, (Hes unrepentant. ' when asked whether that skews his views.) ' He points to recent numbers from the Utah Department of , Transportation that show for the first time that traffic on state roads has dropped. The numbers fell by 3 percent, re- - ; markably dose to what takes off that road. All it took was gasoline. "Its a car problem, so it has to be a car solution, he said congestion. "Thats the only thing thats ever worked. Numbers obtained from UTA show that the likely maximum for ridership during a standing-room-onl- y commute would be about 30,000 people. But that would require a substantial investment in new train cars, and the demand is no where near high enough for that. : : . copy-machin- . . The perfect experiment? Front-Runn- : Those 7,800 trips per day compare to about 140,000 daily car trips along the same stretch of Interstate 15. (There are 126,000 daily trips between Provo and Salt Lake City.) If every one of the ers previously drove a vehicle, FrontRunner removed 5 per- cent of the traffic f ran the road at a cost of (611 million plus ongoing costs paid for through taxes and boarding. fees. ' Chamberlain said his re- search has shown that about a thousand of those 7,800 riders . . ' er a " - . rout CHOKE 159 259 $23995 MTttlM. taMW U aariMMMMtma. U WW WH '.YleJZM 3, i Kfil Tj TOMCH0KI 129M o ni Its time to get comfortable. SPECIAL PRE-SEAS- ON nyti) FURNACE REPLACEMENT J 79 C J .79" tea m e.() jjtiT ms L t nutm nmtm mm'Mm ' v 69 179 OVtUUlJ 2KIEXSI Jfj Count on a Factory York1" York furnaces are ' BM 93SJ mmmrnmmm 39M mmmvmmm PMBU furnace to give you a warm welcome.' assembled, wredand tested, fl39 Nil hwindM 9 algliti si Utfgtna, 4 EMC O B AGRAUTEMPERATURE thwart 226-836- Ar camaieMnt See store ferdetiis.'- 7 mm O IlKIfllT . .(.UNttJCI Ei iNi iillb IIm aar, mJnif ! MT- f t MiidNi wfwopowiwiy I 1 . si A CURTOn "'ll 1 PASSES, Romdlrip JUrtara far 4, One Croop Lasaoa and cnoSHOTRANSPORIMIOI tafbvaiabpsrt -- ' butt for dependably, economy; 3nd comfort ' V:" MeSs." Family members monitoring the ... .. y n. . -- ' nephew asked. "Ain't nothing wrong at all," Graham replied. But, You never know. In March, Carson went down to Lyons to fish with his old buddy. But something just wasn't right. "He just wasn't the guy I'd known all my life," says Car-so- . "I can't quantify it. .,... But I . know that that has been a fao- One transit expert Says that tor," he said when asked for the numbers for rail arent alexamples. At the recent groundbreak- -. ways obvious. Its more of a quality of ing for FrontRunner South, life issue that maybe isn't ". leaders from multiple cham-.ber- a of commerce were on-measured in pure dollars and hand to praise the project. , cents, said Chad Ecdes, a "This will really boost us, transit planner with the Moun-tainlasaid Steve Densley, president Association of Gov-of the ProvoOrem Chamber of eminent s. Commerce. The business community, Plus there's the maintenance when looking to relocate, often looks for places with multiple question. Up from, costs are much higher for rail, Eccles transportation options, Includconcedes, but the rails are ing rail, he said. . le . . The transit solution . once and for all," Said Drew Chamberlain with the Coalition for Accountable Government. "I doit think UTA is going to be very happy." ... - ar . Within six months of the transplant, Graham was well enough to go on a fishing trip with Carson to Alaska. He joked that having a heart had done wonders for his libido. In November 1996, Graham asked the South Carolina Organ Procurement Agency to forward a letter to the donor's family. His children said it was a bad idea, but he wanted to thank Cottle's wife in person. In January 1997, he and his wife met Cheryl Cottle for dinner at a restaurant in Charleston. Graham couldn't keep his eyes off the widow. "I feu in love with Cheryl the first time we met, he would later confess in a letter.. The feeling was apparently not mutual at least, not at first. That April, Cheryl married hus- - ... band No. 3, George Watkins. Sonny Graham gave away the bride. Cheryl bore Watkins a son in January 1999. Around that same time, Elaine Graham learned that her husband's relationship with the younger. woman was more than fatherly. In a poignant letter, Graham apologized to his wife for being "the S.O.B, said I was and destroying "a re-Eou that we had for 40 plus years,. Both couples separated, and shortly after a judge declared the Grahams 38year marriage over, in October 2001, Cheryl and Graham moved into a mobile home on land he'd bought in his hometown while he built a house to ho1 specifications. The domestic bliss did not last long. In May 2002, Cheryl left and Graham promptly sued, accusing her of reneging on some loans and refusing to return A diamond ring. She alleged in a counterclaim that when she told Graham their relationship wasnt gang to work out, he became more possessive iQd threatened her. In the midst of the court case, she . . , A3 ef aa VS-'- Of BSXTSM ' |