S.C. man dies driving to brother’s funeral

updated 5:40 p.m. ET Oct. 25, 2005

FLORENCE, S.C. - Crystal Chockley thought something was wrong when her brother-in-law didn’t show up for her husband’s funeral.

Hours after burying Perry Chockley, she found out why. Larry Chockley died in a car wreck on his way to the funeral Saturday.

“My knees just buckled, and I said, ‘God help me,”’ Crystal Chockley said. “I just couldn’t believe God would take two brothers back-to-back like that.”

The family said Larry Chockley took his brother’s death hard. Perry Chockley was killed in a four-wheeler accident a week ago.

The men’s sister Sherry Harrell also wondered why Larry Chockley wasn’t at the funeral but thought he was too devastated to come.

The family passed by a wreck heading home, but Sherry Harrell said she thought nothing of it until she got the call from the hospital.

Larry Chockley, whose brother died on his birthday, will be buried Thursday on the birthday of another sister, Sherry Harrell said.

“It’s hard to believe they’re gone, but we look at it like they’re both in heaven now, fishing with our daddy,” she said.

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