To those who knew him, Grant Hale was far more than the 17-year-old whose life ended in a tragic crash on U.S. Route 30.

He was a son and a big brother. A trumpet player who found a second family in the Minerva band program. A hardworking student who had already begun building a career as a machinist. He loved fishing, Pokémon Go and gaming with his friends.

He was funny, stubborn and loving. He gave great hugs. And when he walked through the door at home, he greeted the family dogs in a ridiculous high-pitched voice.

Those are the things his mother, Lindsay Hale, wants people to remember.

“We want people to know the boy behind the heartbreaking news story,” Hale wrote in a statement shared Sunday. “We want Grant to be remembered for the life he lived, not simply the way that life ended.”

Grant Lee Hale, a senior at Minerva High School, died Thursday, Sept. 10, from injuries sustained in a crash while he was driving home from school.

“Our entire world was shattered when we got the news Grant was in a tragic car accident on his way home from school and didn’t make it,” his mother wrote.

For Lindsay and Roger Hale, Grant was their firstborn — the child who made them parents.

“There are no words for losing your child. There are no words for losing your firstborn,” Hale wrote. “He was the boy who made us parents. Grant wasn’t just our son, he was half of our hearts.”

A future already taking shape

Born Nov. 24, 2008, in Canton, Grant was beginning his senior year at Minerva High School while attending R.G. Drage Career Technical Center for advanced training in machining.

Precision machining wasn’t simply another class for Grant. It was something he hoped would become his career.

His mother said Grant had already accepted a position with Stolle Machinery and worked full time over the summer, saving the money he earned. He planned to continue working as an apprentice machinist after graduation.

“He had plans, dreams, a future,” Hale wrote.

His obituary describes him as smart, hardworking, funny, stubborn and loving — traits echoed by his mother as she reflected on the everyday moments that made her son who he was.

“Grant was smart, very hardworking, contagiously funny, super stubborn, so loving, and so so incredibly special to us,” she wrote.

A love for music that began in fourth grade

Long before Grant began thinking about machining and life after high school, there was his trumpet.

He began playing in fourth grade, and music remained a passion throughout his life. At Minerva, he was a member of both the marching and concert bands.

“He loved his trumpet and his band family a lot,” his mother wrote. “It was his passion from 4th grade on.”

At home, the sound of Grant practicing his trumpet in his room became part of everyday life — one of the ordinary sounds his family now desperately misses.

But his mother said there was another side of Grant that couldn’t be captured by listing his accomplishments or interests.

“And he was also just … Grant,” she wrote.

He did things his own way and sometimes learned lessons the hard way. He could make his family laugh when they least expected it.

And he adored his younger sister, Ilah.

“He loved his sister, Ilah, beyond words,” Hale wrote. “He would do anything for her. Wherever she wanted to go, he would take her, no questions asked.”

He loved the family’s dogs, fishing, playing Pokémon Go and gaming with his friends.

His mother said she wants to hold onto the details that might seem small to everyone else but mean everything to a parent: his voice, his laugh, his habits, his stubbornness, his hugs and the sound of his trumpet coming from his bedroom.

“Those are the things I want to remember,” she wrote.

A community grieving

Grant’s death has brought an outpouring of support for his family and those closest to him.

His mother said the family has received calls, texts, messages, visits, cards, meals, donations, prayers and hugs in the days since the crash.

The support, she said, has helped carry the family through moments when the weight of losing Grant felt impossible to bear.

“This is all so heavy,” Hale wrote. “We may not be able to respond to everyone right now. We may not even know what to say. Please know that we see you. We feel your love.”

She thanked those who have reached out and those who have simply offered to be there.

“Thank you for loving Grant,” she wrote. “Thank you for helping us carry a pain that is far too heavy to carry alone.”

For his parents, however, there is still the question for which there may never be an answer: Why?

“I don’t understand why this happened,” Hale wrote. “I don’t understand how the world can keep moving when ours has completely stopped.”

Grant is survived by his parents, Roger and Lindsay Hale; his younger sister, Ilah; his maternal grandparents, Alan and Debra Peddicord; his great-grandmother, Barbara Ann Cooper; and other extended family members.

Family and friends may visit from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, at Gotschall-Hutchison Funeral Home, 206 E. Lincoln Way in Minerva.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the funeral home.

As his family prepares to say goodbye, Lindsay Hale said she hopes people remember her son not for the crash that took him at 17, but for everything that came before it — the music, laughter, hard work, friendships, dreams and love he packed into those years.

“We love you beyond words, G,” she wrote. “You will forever be our firstborn, our baby boy, and half of our hearts.”

Forever 17.