He had his life planned out: Mother of Drew Inabnitt talks about his love of family, farming

Yahoo

01-04-2025

'I would tell him, 'Drew, be a kid. Go out and have fun.' And he'd said, 'Mom, there is no place I would rather be than on the back of my horse in the middle of this field, working these cattle.'' Brooke Inabnitt
The story of Drew Inabnitt is of a young man who liked playing football, disliked school, and loved being a cattleman. His ambition was to be a farmer, so much so that he began planning when he was a freshman in high school on how to graduate early so he could get straight to work.
He achieved that dream of graduating early from Southwestern High School in December. He turned 19 in January, and was excited for working on the farm this spring.
It is almost inconceivable, therefore, that his life was cut short so suddenly.
The Eubank resident passed away on March 25 while he was in the fields he so loved.
His mother, Brooke Inabnitt, talked to the Commonwealth Journal about what kind of a person Drew was and how he looked out for his family and friends.
'Me and him were so tight,' Brooke Inabnitt said of her son. 'We were really close. I think that's kind of been the hardest part, because he was not just a good son, but he was a good brother. He always looked out for his brother and sister. Him and his sister talked every day, and he was a thread that kind of held us all together. At 19 years old, he was a rock for his family and his friends. If there was something going on, all of us, even me and his dad, we would call Drew. That's what (his brother) Alex said the other day. He said, 'It's not that I'm sad so much as I'm just lost. We had our whole life planed out.''
Drew was an extensive planner, Brooke Inabnitt said. She has multiple notebooks of his to prove it, where he had written down his goals and what path he was going to take to achieve them.
His ultimate goal was to become a farmer, she said. It was an interest he had since he was little.
'We would always take him to the stockyards at Lake Cumberland Livestock Auction down here, and we would just sit, and we would watch the auction. My dad, before he passed, he would take them when they were little to Jon Anderson's farm just to look at the cows. He was always interested in agriculture and farming,' Brooke said.
She added, 'When he was younger, we always got him these toy cows to play with. His dad built him a stockyard out of little pieces of wood. And he had a little barn. So he's just always, from the time he was old enough to play with the things, that's what he wanted to play with.'
Still, she said she didn't quite understand why he was so attracted to farming.
'I don't know exactly what about the cattle appealed to him. … He's 19, and I would always fuss about it, because he would work. He worked 222 hours this month (March). I would always fuss on the weekends, because his buddy Brodrick Finley would reach out and be like, 'Hey, you want to go hang out with us tonight?' and Drew would be like, 'No.' He wanted to work.
'I would tell him, 'Drew, be a kid. Go out and have fun.' And he'd said, 'Mom, there is no place I would rather be than on the back of my horse in the middle of this field, working these cattle.' So I had to let him do what made him happy.'
His mother would support him in his decisions on what he wanted to do, even if that wasn't always what she wanted for him. For instance, Brooke said he was an excellent football player, but despite her trying to get him to go to college and continue his football career, he was adamant about working instead, she said.
'He went to Pulaski County High School his freshman and sophomore year, and I'm telling you what, he was always in the state records (rankings) for linebackers, for tackles. He just really had a knack for the game and just enjoyed getting out there and playing defense.'
Last year, she said, he transferred to Southwestern High School and had a good year there as well.
'He was always in some sort of record book. And I was wanting to push him to go to college and play football in college, because I just wasn't ready to let that go,' she said. 'I loved watching him out there. He was just so good. But that's not what he wanted to do. He wanted to farm, so as hard as that was for me to let that go, I knew I had to let him pursue what his life goal was. And that was not college.'
Part of the reason for that, she said with a laugh, was that he wasn't the best student in school.
'He was a terrible student. He was awful. He hated school. I couldn't hardly get him to go,' she said.
He enjoyed learning about the things he was interested in, she said, and one of his goals for 2025 was to build his knowledge. But most of the time, his interest was to learn about farming.
'Wes Finley described Drew as the sweetest-meanest kid he'd ever met. And I put that in his obituary,' Brooke said.
As is expected, it hurts his family that he passed away at such a young age. It's especially hard as, since as of right now, they don't have answers as to what caused his death.
Brook Inabnitt said that he was working on a farm at Nancy and was with his girlfriend at the time. He was driving a tractor, and she was opening a gate for him to drive through.
'For whatever reason he was getting out of the tractor, which there was no need for him to get out of the tractor, because he was having to pull through the gate. (The girlfriend) said he was getting out of the tractor when she turned her back, and when she turned back around he was on the ground.'
An autopsy has been performed, Brooke said, but it might take a couple of months for the family to get answers.
'But what I do know, and what brings me peace, is that that boy was doing exactly what he loved to do. He was so happy that day,' she said.
'He was here one minute and gone the next,' she said.
Brooke said that she knew her son had friends, but that she always thought of him having a few close-knit friends that were like brothers to him.
She was not expecting it to be standing-room-only at her son's funeral, she said.
'That gives me comfort, too, knowing that he will live on through them,' she said. 'They have their memories of him and how he's touched their lives.'
She said it has also been comforting to see the outpouring of love that the family has received.
She told the story of when Drew's casket was being lowered into the ground, and Drew's friends asked if they could be the ones to throw the dirt on his grave.
She said she thought it would be a small group of friends, but there were 30 to 40 people who did so.
It was comforting to see 'that amount of love they had for him, and just taking care of him and making sure that he was taken care of right to the very end,' she said.
Brooke summarized her son's life by saying, 'He did so many things to make me shake my head, and he was ornery, but my goodness, I wouldn't change it for nothing. That's what made him who he was. And he packed a lot of life in the 19 years he lived. He lived every single day, doing what he loved and what made him happy.'