ST JOHNS, Fla. — It was a year ago when 23-year-old Brice Turner was driving back to Gainesville from Jacksonville on a Sunday afternoon. He'd been to a Jaguars game, but had to get back to class at the University of Florida, where he was studying in nuclear engineering on his way to earning a PhD.
"It was a rainy day," his mother, Bridget, told First Coast News. "He would always text me when he got home, and I knew the time. He should have been home and he had not texted me."
She made repeated calls, straight to voicemail.
She said she went to bed, trying not to overthink things. But then, the moment happened that any parent would fear the most.
"I woke up to knocking on our door," she said. "It was a patrolman who told us there was a car accident."
Brice was killed on Waldo Road in Gainesville in a collision with another vehicle.
It's been a year of grief for Bridget, her husband and daughter. But, she spent the year focused on his memory.
"I was just a mom on a mission," she said.
Bridget had the idea to start an endowment in her son's name. If she can raise $100,000 in five years, there will be scholarship money given to students in the nuclear engineering program in perpetuity.
"It helps me channel that energy because I am helpless, I am helpless in this," she said. "But, I can now channel that energy and be helpful."
Brice's mother gets very creative in her fundraising. She knew her son loved the University of Florida, and couldn't help but notice something she'd never really paid attention to before he went to school there.
"There are Gator fans everywhere," she said. "I'm looking around, every car has a Gator license plate or bumper sticker."
And that motivated her on her mission. She then had a postcard designed by her friend, Brice's godmother. It tells Brice's story, as bright orange and blue, and features a QR code if people would like to donate to build the endowment.
"I keep a stack of the postcards in my car, and if I see someone with a Gator tag on their car, I'll leave them a post card," Bridget said.
She tried to be as mindful as possible, leaving them tucked into a car door.
"I get annoyed when people put things in my windshield wiper, you have to reach," she said. "So, I put it right here (in the door) for supporters and fans."
And in just a year, Bridget has already raised $57,000. She needs $43,000 more to have the endowment, and has no doubt she'll reach that goal; she has no quit in her for a love that never goes away.
"You never give up, right?" she said. "You never stop, you never stop loving them."