GREENVILLE, Texas — 18-year-old Tommy Conrad had so much life ahead of him. He just graduated high school and went to his senior prom, and was getting ready to go off to college.
“I don’t know where to start,” his father Robert Conrad said. “He’s my oldest son…was my oldest son."
Just six weeks ago, Robert and his wife Lydia took Tommy to the hospital because he felt sick. Doctors told them their son had cancer.
“He was such a good boy,” Robert cried.
Tommy declined fast. When it became clear he would not survive, his parents said he had two dying wishes. The first, Robert explained, was to have all eight of his younger siblings to get into his hospital bed with him.
“He wanted everyone to crawl in bed with him so he could hug them again,” Robert cried. “And he told all of them that he loved them.”
Tommy’s second wish, his parents said, was to vote.
“He wanted this…he wanted this so bad,” Robert said.
Tommy’s parents call him a born leader, a young man of deep faith and a patriot who looked forward to exercising his right to vote since he was a little boy. They said he’s been looking forward to voting in the election for years, and he did not want to die before he had the opportunity.
“It was just that important to him," Robert said. "He knew he was dying.”
Friday, Tommy’s absentee ballot was delivered to the ICU.
“When they called and said we’re downstairs with the ballot, [my wife] cried," he said.
Lydia held the ballot up for her son so he could fill it in. He smiled as best he could for a photo with his ballot.
“It was his last request," he said.
Tommy died the next day, just three days before election day.
“I tried to convince my wife he filled it out even if it doesn’t count,” Robert said. “He won’t know.”
Robert and Lydia assumed their son’s vote couldn’t count. But by Monday elections officials called and confirmed it in fact would, because Tommy was alive when he cast it. The Hunt County Elections Office also confirmed to WFAA that a ballot counts if it was submitted before the person died.
“I was so touched,” Lydia said, crying. “To know that something that mattered so much to him would count.”
Tommy’s parents believe his dying wish can teach us all a life lesson.
“Don’t take anything for granted,” Robert said.