© Cleveland AdvocateJerry Chapman
Jerry Chapman and his wife of 52 years, Frances, of Hardin, were at their hunting lease over the Labor Day weekend when the attack occurred.
Frances says the bees had been discovered inside an exterior compartment of their fifth-wheel travel trailer. They had entered the compartment through a small screw hole. Jerry donned a borrowed beekeeper's mask and was in the process of removing the bees when he was attacked.
"The bees must have found a way to get into the mask. He started running and threw the head gear off and ran to our truck and got inside, but they were all over his bee suit," Frances said.
Trapped inside the travel trailer with a swarm of bees surrounding it, Frances called her husband's cell phone and asked what she could do to help.
"He said, 'Baby, don't go out there, don't go outside,'" Frances recalled. "I could hear him fighting off the bees inside the truck."
When the phone went dead, she called him back to urge him to drive the truck to a neighboring hunting camp where he could seek help. She heard the truck start and pull away as she remained huddled inside the camper.
A little while later, she said hunters from a neighboring camp arrived to help.
"Three hunters came running up to the door of the trailer and said to quickly gather my purse and whatever else I needed. Then we ran to their vehicle," she said.
She found out that her husband had been driven to a hospital in Uvalde, where it was decided that he would be airlifted to a medical center in San Antonio.
"When I got to the hospital and saw my husband, I couldn't believe what I was looking at. The bee stingers were just poking out all over the place on his hands and face," Frances said. "The doctors said he had been stung as much as a thousand times by the bees. He had so much toxic poisoning in him that they put him on dialysis twice but his kidneys finally shut down. There was nothing more they could do."
Chapman died Sept. 7, four days after the attack. He was a father to two sons, grandfather to seven children and great-grandfather of three.
In his community, Chapman is being remembered for his years of service as a Mason. He was a member of the East Houston Masonic Lodge #1299 for 29 years and became a dual member of the Batson Lodge #974, where he was chaplain. He also was a 25-year member of the Arabia Shriners.
Retired at the time of his death, he had worked for Amoco Oil for 33 years as a crane operator.
Frances said she hasn't returned to the travel trailer in Uvalde but was told the bees were eradicated after the attack.
Reader Comments