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Nov 19, 2009 9:42 pm US/Central
Officers Help With Labor Of Love For Fallen Friend
Melissa Newton
HICO (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
It was no surprise to Tracy Hogan that so many people would do so much for her husband, David; a man who never forgot his family, or his Brothers in Blue.
"He was a very good man," Tracy said, "he loved a lot of people and he didn't mind letting it show when he was at work."
When David and Tracy Hogan bought a fixer-upper in the Erath County town of Hico, their plan was to repair it one room at a time. Last summer, the couple started on their 14-year-old son, Wyatt's, room.
"We had taken everything out of it, and taken out all the walls out," Tracy explained, "and it was just down to studs."
"We were about to fix that and insulate it," said Wyatt, who helped his dad with a lot of the work. "My room was the only one that wasn't insulated."
The construction came to a halt in early August, when the veteran Cleburne Police Officer died in a car crash. He was on his way home from work when the accident happened.
"It was pretty hard on everybody," his son recalled.
Hogan's fellow officers decided to finish what he had started.
Although the project originally started as simply finishing one room, it quickly snowballed, into a much bigger undertaking.
"We came down and started looking at the room, and realized there were several projects that needed to be done." said Shane Wickson with the Cleburne Police Officers' Association.
From top to bottom, outside and in, the Hogan's house is getting a complete overhaul.
"It's about 60 thousand dollars worth of work when it's all said and done," said volunteer, Craig Nunn, of Renaissance Remodeling.
The remodel isn't costing the family a penny. All of the materials and equipment have been donated by companies like Home Depot, Lowes, Triple J Concrete and Triple J Roofing, and James Hardie Building Products.
The work will be done by fellow police officers, firefighters, and contractors from Cleburne who are volunteering their time.
"This is the right thing to do," Wickson said, "and were the roles reversed David would have done the same thing for our family."
"It doesn't bring anybody back by no means," said Nunn, "but it gives them a safe home to live in." A home that is filled with memories and pictures of a man who won't be forgotten.
Volunteers hope to finish the exterior projects by Friday night. They want complete the interior by the end of December.
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