Sharlynne Wermter of Woods Cross Roads has experienced something no mother ever wants to have to go through—unsuccessfully trying to save the life of her injured child.
Her 16-year-old son, Brycen Wermter, died in a boating accident in the York River on Sunday, July 30.
That day was filled with fun and excitement for the Wermter and McDonald families. Sharlynne and her ex-husband Carl Wermter had been urged by their son Brycen to set aside differences stemming from their divorce and to bring their two families together in friendship.
With a new 24-foot pontoon boat in the family, Sharlynne and her husband, Jon McDonald, invited more than a dozen extended family members to spend July 30 out on the York River. There were step-moms and -dads and -siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a grandmother all on board. On top of that, Brycen and his cousin Braiden Mitchell had jet skis, with Brycen newly licensed to operate his.
“It was the first outing with both families,” said Sharlynne. “We all became friends because of Brycen. He wanted it so badly. He was the glue that brought us together.”
The boat launched from the Gloucester Point boat ramp at 9:30 a.m., and everyone had lunch together around noon. All the while, the children were taking turns tubing behind the boat as Brycen and Braiden rode the jet skis. They were reminded to stay in front of the boat to avoid running over the tubers.
At around 2:30 p.m., the adults decided to take a few turns tubing, and Carl and his brother-in-law Gregg Mitchell climbed on. As Jon drove the boat, keeping the speed at 18-20 mph because of the number of people he was carrying, the boys played tag on their jet skis, and Sharlynne watched the tubers in case one of them fell off.
“I heard Jon say, ‘What the f…, Brycen!’” said Sharlynne, “and he was turning a hard right. I saw him hit part of the jet ski.”
Jon said Brycen had come up on the boat’s left, 20 to 30 yards away, and the nose of the jet ski appeared at first to be drifting toward the boat. The next thing he knew, the jet ski made a hard turn straight toward the boat. Jon knew he had to act fast.
“If I came off the throttle, anybody on the front of the boat would go off,” said Jon. “So I tried to start turning the boat so he would hit the side of it … But he was directly in front, and as soon as he hit, the boat rocked to the left.”
Sharlynne said that she saw the jet ski with nobody on it, then saw Brycen floating face down in the water in a pool of blood.
The family went right into action. Braiden reached Brycen first, followed by Carl, who turned his son over. Sarah Mitchell called 911 as the boat was heading back to them. Jon helped pull Brycen into the boat, leaving the tubers in the water to save time and heading back to shore.
Brycen had life-threatening injuries to his face and left arm. Sharlynne, a certified nurse, started CPR.
“The nurse in me knew he was gone,” she said. “But the mom in me said, if there’s any chance of saving him, I have to do CPR.”
During the 20-minute ride back to shore, Sharlynne performed CPR on her injured son, stopping only twice, as Carl’s wife Amanda Wermter and Sherry Lujan briefly relieved her.
“I don’t trust anybody else with my baby,” she said.
At the dock, members of Abingdon Volunteer Fire and Rescue were waiting with an ambulance. Sharlynne told them that an air ambulance was needed, but the squad members checked for pulses and confirmed Brycen’s death.
“Looking back now, there was nothing they could have done except confirm him dead,” she said.
Then an awful wait began for the medical examiner.
“My baby was on that boat for four hours waiting for somebody to pick him up,” said Sharlynne. “We sent the kids away after taking their phones, but it was all over Snapchat within minutes.”
There had been some miscommunication regarding the medical examiner’s office, said Sharlynne, but finally a Gloucester funeral service picked Brycen up and took him to the medical examiner’s office.
On Tuesday, just over a week after the accident, Sharlynne was remembering her son with grief and pride.
“Everybody says my kid was an amazing person,” she said. “He really was.”
Brycen was the kind of young man who stood up to bullies, who took care of his sister and their autistic brother, who befriended children with disabilities or those who were picked on.
“He was sarcastic and witty and a smart-ass,” said Sharlynne, “but he had a heart of gold.”
The most important things to him, she said, were his family, football, and video games.
In a tribute to her son that was read at his funeral service, Sharlynne described Brycen as “compassionate, almost too honest sometimes, self-motivated, respectful, courageous with his beliefs, hilarious, witty and an all-around amazing human.”
Sharlynne said she and Brycen showed their love for each other by sharing off-the-wall jokes, wrestling, water fights, and their shared love of ’90s rap.
“We shared an amazing bond,” she said. “Our love was fun.”
While she always told Brycen she was his mom and not his friend, said Sharlynne, “In reality, he was my best friend, and I’m going to miss him until my last breath.”
