Woman Raising Funds To Honor Son's Classmate, Lost Too Soon

EAST HAMPTON, NY — Kate Mueth of East Hampton will soon be celebrating a milestone birthday, her 50th. But instead of gifts, she has turned to social media, asking her friends and loved ones to help parents facing their worst nightmare realized.

Mueth created a Facebook fundraiser, "Kate's Birthday For The Memory Of Beautiful Lucas Flint," to honor the life of a college classmate of her son's who died after being struck by an alleged drunk driver, she said.

"This is hard to share, as I am filled with deep sorrow," she wrote. "My heart hurts so badly for the parents, family and friends of Lucas Flint, an Emerson student who, by all accounts, was light and love and dreamer in the height of his young, hopeful life. Lucas was much like Josh's and my son August, also an Emersonian, an only child, and deeply loved."

According to a post in The Patriot Ledger, The Norfolk County District Attorney’s office identified the young man who died over Christmas break as Lucas Flint of Braintree, a 21-year-old student in Emerson College’s class of 2020; police said Flint was seriously injured when he was hit by a drunk driver on Washington Street and later died, according to the report.

The post added that police said the driver, 25-year-old Darrell Young of Quincy, did not stop after the crash and was later found in Holbrook; he was arraigned in Quincy District Court on charges of drunken driving causing serious bodily injury and negligent driving, leaving the scene of a crash causing personal injury, driving with a suspended license, driving an uninsured car and a marked lanes violation, according to the report.

"This . . . stole Lucas from his loved ones' world and cut short his excitement to be a creative force in our world. Lucas, through his absence, leaves a gaping, crushingly painful hole for those who loved and cared for him. In ways none of us will ever know, his absence leaves a gaping hole for all of us," Mueth wrote.

Mueth said she hopes to mark her Jan. 26 birthday by asking for donations that will all go to Lucas' parents, to be used for a memorial action in his name at Emerson College in Boston, MA, whether a scholarship in his name or a commemorative memorial on campus.

According to his obituary, Lucas was a junior at Emerson College, Class of 2020, where he was studying film and media. He was the son of Susan M. Murphy-Flint of Braintree and David Flint of Lake Whales, FL.

"The choice will be up to his parents who have chosen not to keep the money themselves, but to make active and visible their beautiful son's memory," Mueth said. "His parents are amazing humans, courageous, brave and warm in the throes of this unimaginable horror. Lucas, an organ donor, along with his parents, donated to five people in desperate need of organs. Their generosity even in the face of a nightmare, is remarkable," Mueth wrote.

Lucas, she said, had been accepted into Emerson's LA study program, although he didn't know it yet. "This boy had much life ahead of him," she wrote. "No mother, no father, should have their child robbed from them like this. In the mother-bond I know this pain is eternally unbearable. Insurmountable pain, but through action we can bend this deep suffering into mothering our child-spirits in a new way that allows for pain to mobilize into a different sort of mother love that will never be extinguished."

Speaking with Patch, Mueth explained her wish to reach out to a family she has never even met. Her son, August Gladstone, 18, is a freshman at Emerson, studying visual media arts, with a concentration in writing for film and television, but sadly, never met Lucas.

Lucas' mother Susan, Mueth said, told her that they are considering a scholarship in their son's name, "so, hopefully, the gift keeps giving for a long ripple."

Mueth's hope is that Emerson grads and others donate to make the scholarship an evergreen.

As the mother of an only child herself, Mueth said Lucas' death is hard to bear.

"The nightmare that Lucas' parents are experiencing is every parent's worst fear. Those things we cannot control no matter how many times we furtively look our children in the eye and say, 'Please be safe,'" she said. "We give birth to these tiny, vulnerable creatures and are forever changed as our hearts go walking out in the world away from us as they grow. To lose a child, and your only child, is a violent violation of all the love parents have poured into their living, breathing, act of audacious, forward-moving hope manifested in human form. It is shocking brutality. To lose a child to another's grievous, reckless, preventable mistake is darkest hell. How does one continue onward in day-to-day activities after this experience? So we must help Lucas' parents stand, take steps, and move into their own important, needed, loved lives with acts of strong support. They need, and will continue to need, a cushion of love and Lucas-centered support around them forever after. We all need to help them know their son is still very much alive in other ways now."

Asked why she chose to focus her birthday on the memory of a young man she'd never met, Mueth reflected.

"My life has been blessed with luck at living to this age. I am grateful for this and want to put into action my deep sorrow for the loss of Lucas while also celebrating his meaningful life. . . We, as mothers, see what Susan is suffering and realize it as our darkest inner fears brought to harrowing daylight. It's that monster terror which we look upon and see is within us, our most feared nemesis actualized. We are all Susan, as mothers. And I find it emotionally sticky simultaneously to see we parents of our fellow college children going onward — talking about the various programs our Emersonians got into, rooming situations, plans for next semester. And while, of course, we are living — we must! But it still feels so hard to endure, knowing that Lucas and his parents also, a mere 12 days ago, were dreaming and planning and thinking of his future . . . and, well, here lies the cruelty, right here."

To donate, click here.

Patch photo courtesy Kate Mueth and Susan Murphy-Flint.