Honoring Colin Rogers — A Family’s Journey of Love, Sacrifice, and Loss

On June 15, 2023, our lives changed forever.

Our youngest son, Colin Clay Rogers, was just 17 years old when he became the victim of a violent crime. He was dragged approximately 855 feet by a vehicle traveling around 45 miles per hour.

What happened that day didn’t just change Colin’s life. It changed the lives of everyone who loved him.

Colin suffered catastrophic injuries and spent nearly four months in intensive care. On October 11, 2023, we finally brought him home.

Not the way any parent ever imagines bringing their child home, but he was home. And that’s where we were determined to keep him.

For more than three years, our family provided Colin with around-the-clock care.

His mother, Patricia Rae Rogers, whom many know as Patty Rae, made caring for Colin her entire life.

And I mean that literally.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. There were no vacations, no holidays, no weekends off.

There was simply Colin, and whatever he needed.

Our family worked together to make sure he was never alone and never without someone who loved him.

There were struggles most people will never see or understand. We fought insurance companies for appropriate care, fought to make our home accessible, and fought to provide Colin with the dignity and comfort he deserved.

We even spent years trying to secure a home that could accommodate his medical needs, including something as basic as a proper shower.

We weren’t looking for luxury. We were looking for a way to care for our son.

Along the way, our family sacrificed careers, financial security, personal freedom, and much of the life we had known.

But there’s something I want people to understand.

Colin wasn’t a burden. He was our son.

And when you love somebody, you don’t measure what they’re worth by what they can do for you.

You measure it by what they mean to you.

Despite everything that happened to him, Colin was loved and cared for every moment of every day. He was surrounded by family, familiar voices, and people who refused to give up on him.

At approximately 4:10 AM on November 1, 2026, Colin passed away peacefully in his sleep.

After more than three years of fighting a battle we never asked to fight, that chapter of our lives has come to an end.

And now we face something we haven’t had time to prepare for.

Not just saying goodbye to our youngest son, but figuring out how to rebuild a life that has revolved entirely around caring for him.

Our family has experienced substantial financial hardship over these last three years. We lost employment opportunities, depleted resources, and became dependent on the income associated with providing Colin’s care.

With his passing, that income has ended immediately, while our household expenses and financial obligations remain.

We are now facing funeral and memorial expenses, outstanding financial responsibilities, and the difficult transition into whatever comes next.

For years, we tried to handle these challenges ourselves.

Asking for help has never been something that comes naturally to me.

I’ve always believed that if somebody else can figure something out, I can figure it out too.

But sometimes life puts you in a situation where there simply isn’t anything left to fix.

And that’s where we find ourselves today.

We’re creating this fundraiser to help cover Colin’s funeral and memorial arrangements, ease the financial burden on our family, and give us some breathing room as we adjust to the loss of both our son and the life we’ve known for the past three years.

Any contribution, no matter how small, would be deeply appreciated. And if you’re unable to contribute, simply sharing Colin’s story would mean a great deal to our family.

I don’t know that I have the words to describe how I feel about losing my youngest son.

But I do know that he was loved.

He was loved before June 15, 2023.

He was loved every day afterward.

And he’ll be loved long after today.

They say it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

I believe that.

And despite everything, I wouldn’t trade the years we had with Colin for anything in this world.

Thank you to everyone who has followed Colin’s journey, supported our family, offered prayers, or simply taken the time to care.

Thomas “Clay” Rogers and Patricia “Patty Rae” Rogers

Proud parents of Colin Clay Rogers.