HONESDALE, Pa. — On July 30, 2021, 16-year-old Timothy Howey died in an ATV accident. Howey had just finished his sophomore year at Honesdale High School, and his death devastated his twin brother Jeremy.
"I lost half of myself. It was hard," Jeremy said.
"He brought a lot of joy to everybody, and he was a pretty good guy. He would do anything for you," said senior Owen Hawley.
This would have been Timothy's senior year, and Jeremy wanted to do something with the whole senior class to remember his brother. So they decided to do something special during their class trip to Disney World last week.
"To spread kindness and to get his name out there because, hell, if I was gone, he'd do the same thing for me," Jeremy said.
On the last night of their trip to the Magic Kingdom, students passed out about 400 glow necklaces in Red — Timothy's favorite color — before the fireworks show. Each necklace contained a note explaining who Timothy was and why the students were sharing them.
"I didn't really expect it at all. They went away fast too. We just started handing them out, and the whole main street was just nothing but red," Hawley said.
"I don't know how to describe it, but it's a really good feeling, but seeing Jeremy's face meant it," said senior Patrick Garvey.
People from all over visit Disney World, and it didn't take long for photos of the necklaces to make it to Facebook, where thousands of people have seen them and have been moved by the story.
"Shows how nice people are and how stuff like that can spread and what it can mean to you," Garvey said.
"It brought everyone closer to see, and people are still grieving after almost two years, but yeah. Bittersweet? Yeah," Jeremy added.
Though bittersweet, Timothy's spirit and memory will live on in that moment with these students forever.
Check out WNEP's YouTube channel.