GENEVA — There is a heavy weight in Scott Turner’s life, like a stone sitting on his chest, restricting his emotions and breathing, holding his grief to the ground.

Turner is the son of Dick Turner, who died April 8 when Angela Ball, 28, of Saybrook Township fled a routine traffic stop and struck his car. Dick Turner and his dog Buddy died instantly.

Ball, who was intoxicated at the time of the crash, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and was ordered to alcohol rehabilitation. She is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 7 in Eastern County Court.

Turner’s family has looked to find comfort wherever they can, honoring Dick’s long legacy of old cars and loud motorcycles, his fierce love for his family and pets in every possible way, even burying the ashes of his two dogs with him.

In this quest for remembrance, the family’s resolve to find meaning in Dick’s death literally turned to stone. Dick’s children Karen, Scott and Tim, penned a poem of love, loss and the consequences of drunk driving. Their words and tears captured the attention of Jim Belding of Belding Memorials.

“The message is very strong and very beautiful,” Belding said. “I thought that maybe someone walking through the cemetery might see it and take the message to heart. Maybe these words could stop a DUI and change someone’s life.”

Belding inscribed the poem on Dick Turner’s black stone amongst a portrait of the man and his dogs and images of cars and motorcycles.

Scott Turner’s face trembles with barely contained emotion as he speaks of his father.

“I wanted an epitaph for my dad that makes a statement,” Scott Turner said. “My brother and sister and I agreed that we want anybody who walks through here and reads this stone to feel my dad’s life.”

“By reading this stone, you know what happened to him and you know that he would still be here with us if not for a drunk driver,” he said.

The family isn’t stopping at the stone at Evergreen Cemetery. Scott Turner’s fiancee Susan Anderson is working to found Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) chapters in Ashtabula County.

Anderson and Scott Turner have been invited to attend the MADD conference in Columbus in August.

Anderson has also discussed a possible “Turner’s Law,” which would require second-offense drunk drivers to install a breathalyzer in their car that would disable the vehicle if the driver tests intoxicated.

“We will be pushing for Turner’s Law hard when the Senate is back in session,” Anderson said.

Dick’s sister Dottie Betts has taken matters into her own hands, gathering signatures and victim’s impact letters of those who knew Dick or heard of the accident.