Graduation Day: For the Goforth family, it started out as a happy time.

Brittney Goforth, 12, and her 14-year-old brother, whom everybody called J.R., looked on proudly as their older sister received her associate degree in criminal justice Saturday at Spartanburg Methodist College.

It was a memory the family could cherish, a good time shared by all.

But the good times didn''''t last.

"It''''s the last thing we all experienced together," Tiffany Goforth, 20, said Monday.

Saturday ended in tragedy, with a single-car collision on Nazareth Church Road claiming the lives of Brittney and J.R. and their uncle, Maurice Rodgers.

The only survivor of the crash was the children''''s father, Jeff Goforth, who was driving.The wreck has taken its inevitable toll on Jeff Goforth, who likely will recover physically long before he fully copes with the experience internally.

But Jeff Goforth, a Spartanburg businessman who once owned Mimi''''s Deli downtown, has pressed through hard times before.

The family''''s loss also has highlighted the danger of winding Nazareth Church Road, which is flanked with steep drop-offs on either side of near-90-degree turns.

Three words

Saturday evening, the Goforths were returning home to Boiling Springs from a family member''''s house on Irby Court in the Fairmont community between Highway 29 and Reidville Road.

The rains had taken a brief respite, but the road was still wet.

Tiffany drove up to the scene of a car crash. She asked what type of vehicle had been involved.

It was the three words she didn''''t want to hear: "White Ford Expedition."

Though the crash is under investigation, speed and road conditions are believed to have contributed to it.

It''''s not the first lives Nazareth Church Road has claimed.

Since 1995, the state Office of Highway Safety has recorded 78 crashes on that road, including two other fatalities.

Monday afternoon, state Department of Transportation workers were replacing signs approaching the curve from either side that had been either vandalized or stolen.

The "20 mph" limit underneath the sharp curve warning sign had been blacked out by spray paint.The series of sharp curves where Brittney and J.R. and their uncle died on Saturday is just before Freys Creek Road. Immediately past that intersection, 57-year-old Beulah McDowell has lived for a quarter century.

She''''s never witnessed a crash, but she''''s heard of plenty.

"It''''s a dead man''''s curve," McDowell said, outside her home. "It''''s a blind sight coming from (Highway) 29, or coming this way (from Reidville Road) - especially for school buses."

Robin Forrest, chief investigator at the Spartanburg County Coroner''''s Office, has suggested a guard rail around the curve would help. Others have called for cutting trees so that cars can see whether someone is approaching from the other side.

Kevin Coyle, assistant maintenance engineer for the Spartanburg County DOT office, said the agency looks at guard rail construction on a case-by-case basis. Usually, unless someone voices a concern, that decision is made when a road is first constructed.

Coyle said Monday that he''''d heard no discussion of adding a guard rail anywhere on Nazareth Church Road.

"A guard rail would help," Forrest said. "It might not prevent a wreck, but it would help.

Both students were athletes

But fixing a road isn''''t going to bring back the futures of the two Goforth children.

J.R. was shy, but a ladies'''' man nonetheless, Tiffany said: "He was a sneaky little flirt."

He played football, basketball and a little baseball, and played them well. Friends say he was looking forward to being a ninth-grader and playing varsity football in the fall at Boiling Springs High School.

J.R. was "exceptional, a great athlete with a great drive to win, and a leader," said Joel Goff, who teaches seventh-grade social studies at Boiling Springs Junior High and coached J.R.''''s football team last year."A good many of them grew up with (J.R.) in the community, and played with him growing up," Goff said.

Brittney was heavily involved in her family''''s church, Mount Zion Full Gospel Baptist Church on Wimberly Drive. She dabbled in athletics, too - "To grandma and grandpa: I hit a grand slam!" she wrote on the back of a wallet-sized photo that shows the girl in her baseball uniform - but many people often talk about her dancing. She was a part of her church''''s dance and praise team.

Searching

Since Saturday, it''''s been hard to drive down Springfield Road, where the Goforth family lives. At least half, probably more, of their church family have been there to offer support.

"With prayer, we''''re holding up," said Lisa Wilburn, one of Brittney and J.R.''''s aunts.

"That''''s what you do when things happen: You come together," said LaVerne Ballew of Spartanburg, who attends Mount Zion.The family expects Jeff Goforth to be released from the hospital today. He has one minor surgery scheduled in the meantime.

Bishop Nathan Robinson of Mount Zion will counsel him in upcoming weeks to help him get his life back on track.

"We don''''t want him to feel the blame," Robinson said. "We''''re trying not to put a lot of pressure on him, to do any unnecessary grieving. The fact that he lost his children is stress enough."

But Jeff Goforth has faced tragedy before.

When he was 18, his mother, a mill worker, was shot to death in the driveway of her home, leaving him alone to raise his younger brother and sister.

"I knew she was gone, but somehow she was still with us," Goforth told the Herald-Journal in 1998. "A great feeling came over me as I walked away from where they found her toward the house that said, ''''Jeff, you have to stay strong and take care of the family.'''' "

Perhaps he''''s searching for that feeling now.

"It''''s still hard for him to grasp the concept that he has lost his two youngest kids, and his only brother," Tiffany said. "He faulted himself, but we keep telling him there was nothing he could have done. It was their time."

Friends have established the Goforth Family Fund at area First Citizens banks.