Randy Budd Update: ‘I Think I Know Why He Did It’ Jeff Farrow Says His Friend Was Tormented By Wife’s Brain Injuries
Randy Budd, 55, husband to Sharon Budd, a middle school teacher who suffered horrific brain injuries when a group of young men dropped a five-pound rock on their car in 2014 committed suicide on Saturday, and friend Jeff Farrow says he think he knows why Randy Budd did it, WNEP News Station is reporting.
Jeff Farrow, who runs a small cleaning business with his partner near the hospital in Danville, Pennsylvania, where Sharon Budd was rushed after the tragedy, said they offered Randy a free place to live so that he could be close to his wife. According to him, a small group of friends and volunteers also helped organize fundraisers and provide words of encouragement for the devastated family.
Farrow said Budd was deeply devoted to his wife of 33 years and that it was heart wrenching to see her endure so much pain, going through seven surgeries and losing the vision in her right eye. The cleaning business co-owner said his 55-year-old friend questioned why he was spared and his wife suffered catastrophic injuries.
“It’s worse than anything imaginable. Randy became family to us. We always said to each other, ‘we are family now.’ It’s so devastating.”
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Farrow said he spoke with Randy days before the suicide on the phone and they had concluded plans to spend the weekend together at a Budd family reunion.
Jeff confirmed that his friend sent him a text, hours before his suicide, thanking him and his partner for all they had done. According to him, it was something Randy Budd did all the time, so he thought nothing of it. However, with the benefit of hindsight, he now sees things differently.
“The poor man suffered for so long. He went a long time hurting and suffering. We’re human and we can only take so much. Randy lost Sharon and when he lost Sharon, he lost his life. Sharon was his life—every single thing— for him.”
Tragic suicide, #RandyBudd, husband of #SharonBudd, perm.disabled when teens threw rock from hwy overpass at car https://t.co/jMm61gMwa7
— Mary Pat Ryan (@MaryPatRyan) August 8, 2016
Frost recalls when Budd took the offer to live in their guest house while his wife, Sharon Budd fought for her life at the Geisinger Medical Center. He added that most times, the devoted husband opted to sleep in his wife’s hospital room, always feeding her and whispering assurances in her ears, telling her everything was going to be fine.
Jeff remembers one moment when Randy lifted his wife, who was barely strong enough to stand, so that they could dance to their favorite tunes.
Even after Sharon was discharged from the hospital and returned to Ohio, the Budds continued to make scheduled visits to Geisinger, Farrow and his other half always hosted them when they showed up.
One time, they took the couple to see the movie Jersey Boys and another time put together Sharon Budd Day events, which has held for the last two years. It was where the social media hashtag and slogan #BUDDstrong was birthed, with tens of thousands of dollars raised for the family.
“It’s worse than anything imaginable. Randy became family to us. We always said to each other, ‘we are family now.’ It’s so devastating.”
Sharon Budd was a front-seat passenger in a Nissan Rogue SUV. Her daughter, Kaylee was driving, while her husband was in the backseat. They were all heading to New York to see a Broadway show when a rock crashed through the vehicle dropped from an overhead pass by four Pennsylvanian teens.
The young men, who were 17 and 18 years during the time of the attack, got minimum sentences of 12 months and four and a half years behind bars.
[Photo by Ralph Wilson/AP Images]
