INDIANAPOLIS — A year-long battle for a southeast Indy family came to a tragic end this week after MarKeeth Stokes, who was struck by two vehicles on I-70 last November, died Wednesday.
“The pain is, it’s a pain you can’t describe when you lose a child,” said Maxine Stokes, MarKeeth’s mother.
Stokes said not a day went by without her son, whom she described as an average jokester, doing something to make those around him smile and laugh.
”That was my nickname for him — Snickerdoodles,” Stokes said. “Always into something, doing something, hiding something … I’d ask him, ‘Snickerdoodles, you seen this?’ ‘No, ma’am,’ he’d have it in his pocket the whole time.”
Stokes said, before the accident, her son loved to fish, bowl, and spend quality time with his family — doting on his 4-year-old daughter Reign and looking forward to meeting his now 7-month-old daughter Saige.
“He loved his babies,” Stokes said.
On the morning of Nov. 9, 2022, Stokes said her son was returning home from a bachelor party when he got into a car accident on I-70. After getting out of his car to check on the other driver he had collided with, MarKeeth was struck by two oncoming vehicles, according to Stokes.
“That morning, I got up, and I’d seen on the news where the highway was shut down, and I just dropped to my knees and I started praying,” Stokes said. “I just started praying not realizing I was praying for my own son.”
Despite being told by doctors that MarKeeth wouldn’t make it through the night, Stokes said her son defied the odds. After months of fighting off infection after infection, his injuries proved too severe.
“He could communicate with his eyes,” Stokes said. “He would blink twice for yes and once for no, and this last time, he, I asked him was he tired, and he just, he said ‘yeah,’ so, I knew,” Stokes said.
MarKeeth passed away Wednesday — the day after his mother’s birthday.
“I knew he was tired, but he gave me what he could, and I was blessed and thankful for that,” Stokes said.
If you’re interested in donating to the Stokes family, you can do so here.
Comments are closed.