By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – Why was a grown man who lived 13 miles out of town, and no longer drove, standing near the outside rail of the tracks in downtown Centralia in the middle of the night?
Nobody knows for sure, because he was struck and killed by a freight train last week.
But his ex-wife has a pretty good idea.
Michael T. Patton
Michael T. Patton, 58, lived alone in a house he built on Centralia-Alpha Road in Chehalis. Alzheimer’s ran in his family.
Some months ago, he’d developed a routine of walking to Centralia every day to visit his ex-wife, Gene Inmon.
Inmon was the one who took him to the Veteran’s Hospital in Seattle last May, where the doctor who took a brain scan told her he didn’t know how Patton was even functioning.
“I was around him every day so I didn’t notice it like other people did,” Inmon said. “But it was like every day, there was another piece of him gone.
“It’s a terrible disease.”
Thankfully his truck finally broke down, so he had to quit driving, Inmon said on a recent day as she recounted the downward spiral she witnessed in her former husband.
Sometimes he was giggly, as though he were a kid again, she said.
Adult Protective Services had begun the process to get him a guardian to mange his affairs, she said. He didn’t even know how old he was, she said, he needed to go into a some kind of home.
“I was terrified something was going to happen to him, because he was so confused,” she said.
Inmon, a sometimes substitute teacher who also works in an office in Tenino, said the disease came on fast and progressed rapidly, leaving few traces of the former “Pe Ell boy.”
Patton was single father who raised his three children in Pe Ell, she said. When he was younger, he was a a medic in the Army and served in Germany, she said.
For 35 years, Patton worked for Weyerhaeuser harvesting pine cone seeds during the season and then as a contractor in the off-season.
Inmon and Patton lived in Doty during their five-year marriage, after his daughter and two sons were mostly grown.
He was a fix-it guy, that little old ladies loved and a guitar player who composed songs he shared with friends, at home and at church, she said.
He attended Centralia Bible Chapel every Sunday before he got sick, she said.
Early last week, Patton arrived in Centralia with an orange reflective vest. Someone had stopped him on the road and given it to him, Inmon said. She doesn’t know who. He just told her it was a “gift.”
Inmon said it was his habit to stop and sort of hunker down into his shoulders when traffic would go by.
The day before he was killed, Patton wore his vest. He and Inmon did some shopping, had lunch, and she got him some movies before driving him home.
That night, she got a phone call from a process server looking for Patton’s address so he could deliver the guardianship papers.
It was 9 o’clock, she said.
“I told him, he’s asleep, he’s sick, don’t get him all riled up,” she said. “And that’s exactly what happened. I’m sure he was heading here.”
Patton died hours later.
Centralia police were called about 12:30 a.m. on January 9 to the area near Chestnut Street and South Tower Avenue.
Police were told by the engineer and conductor of the Union Pacific train they were near the Gold Street viaduct when they saw him and began sounding the horn.
According to the police report, the man was facing west with his hands in his pockets and just stood there.
He turned his head toward the train just before impact, police wrote.
Patton’s body landed only about 10 feet from the tracks. He was wearing the reflective vest over his leather coat, according to detective Rick Hughes. With him was a newly purchased pack of cigarettes and an unscratched lottery ticket, Hughes wrote.
The locomotive was stopped in the middle of the intersection at Maple Street. The engineer said he believed the train was slowed down to less than 40 mph.
Patton probably didn’t even know what the train’s headlight was, Inmon said.
His death was determined to have been accidental.
“It’s all very sad, and it should not have happened,” Inmon said. “There’s a side of me that’s angry and sad, and a part of me that thinks he’s released from that.”
Last year in Washington, there were 14 people struck and killed by trains in Washington. The year before, there were 26.
The stretch of tracks through Centralia is the busiest route in the state, with an average of 60 trains each day.
Patton is survived by his children, Jennifer Coucoules, Allen Patton and Edward Patton, their families and also by two brothers and two sisters, according to Inmon.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday Jan. 26, 2013 at 1 p.m. at Centralia Bible Chapel, 209 N. Pearl St., Centralia, Wash. A potluck will follow.
Instead of flowers, his family requests donations be made to the Lewis County Veteran’s Relief Fund, 360 NW North St., Chehalis, Wash., 98532 or to the University of Washington Alzheimer’s Research Fund.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Thank you Sharyn for the update reporting. And a big thank you to Gene for your history and thoughful comments. Eventhough we grew up thousands of miles away and never go the chance to grow and know one anohter I believe we have a family bond that is embedded in my soul. I’ve seen my dad, my two uncles and Mikes mom succum to this dreadful disease. My dad passed at 66. He went from walking, talking man to totally bedridden within 6 months to finally taking his breath away within 18 monlth. Mike was 58, my dad was 66, I am 56 and playing a waiting game. I agree with what J.Z says, if i had my choice, bring on the Midnight Special ……. RIP Michael RIP
What’s also sad is that we’re just now entering retirement days for the earliest of Baby Boomers, and in just a few years there are going to be so many more folks with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases that debilitate us at least as much mentally as physically.
The system meant to care for such people is already taxed heavily now and it’s only going to get more bogged down because of the sheer numbers involved. The result will include more tragedies like this one.
My grandmother is dieing of Alzheimers… it absolutly is a heart breaking disease. The saddest part is that with nearly every other terminal disease, cancer, and the like, the person suffering with it knows they’re dieing. With Alzheimers the patient really doesn’t have any idea. The confusion and the frustration is horrible. May Michael rest in peace and may his children remember the good things about him and know he is no longer suffering.
I agree with 123. Nice job of reporting the background of an unfortunate accident victim. It brings a sense of humanity to a cold news story.
I am terribly sorry for the tragedy of this good man who deserved better. As does everyone who grows old and vulnerable.
Because we should learn from tragedy, this might be a good time to bring up the topic of other instances of people who should not be on the roads. I note that this poor man had been driving while impaired, until he couldn’t.
I lived for a while in senior housing. Out of 35 old people at least a dozen were certifiably mentally ill. Several others were well on their way .The usual dementia of old age. This issue was not addressed beyond us all having to live with it.
And at least two of them were driving back and forth every day from Chehalis to Centralia. I now think of that as the most dangerous road in the county because of the high concentration of seniors on it going from one town to the other as part of their routine.
One of them was so far gone she would disconnect her old fashioned land-line phone and put it in her purse, the cord dragging and drive away in her pajamas. She recently stopped driving. Only because she is now in special care.
The other, a 77 year old man given to delusions . I witnessed him as belligerently aggressive on the road, unable to negotiate turns and driving an enormous unrestored wreck of a 1978 truck with the door handles off the passenger side. He’s still on the road as far as I know.
Lewis County has a huge population of senior citizens. When they go around the bend, we have only luck so far to keep us from the taking us with them.
The manager of this facility was well aware of this problem, believe me. But her philosophy, in my opinion and observation, was centered around whatever was the easiest way for her to get through the day and to her paycheck. For all she cared, she could have been managing a flock of geese.
This needs to be corrected without someone dying because it hasn’t. Adult Protective Services should be protecting all of us. There should be way to notify them that vulnerable senior citizens are on the road when they shouldn’t be.
Sharyn, good report. Thank you for posting.
:'( breaks my heart all thru way around
For my part, if it’s a choice between the slow death of Alzheimer’s, to the point that you don’t know your loved ones anymore, or the fast death of a speeding train…bring on the Midnight Special.