Couple finds joy in wake of tragedy

NEW EDINBURG — There are love stories — and then there are extraordinary love stories.

Bruce and Helen Browning Grice of New Edinburg were the stepfather and mother of 22-year-old single mother and licensed practical nurse Callie Weems, who was slain in the June 21 Mad Butcher shooting in Fordyce. They are now raising Callie’s daughter, Ivy Mae, who just turned 1 on Aug. 3.

Sitting on the front porch of their country home, they shared their epic journey together.

“We’ve had one argument in the eight years we’ve been together,” said Bruce, 55.

Helen added: “And that was just a few months into the relationship.”

Today marks their eighth anniversary as a couple. Explaining how they first got together, Helen, 54, said she had come to New Edinburg from her home in Kingsland to hear a Saturday evening concert featuring renowned Delta rockabilly artist C.W. Gatlin, who was playing in the old school gym.

“I’ve known Bruce my whole life,” Helen said. “I remember him getting into a fight at the Cleveland County Basketball Tournament when I was in the ninth grade.

“The night we met up, we started out thinking the other one was still with their previous partner,” she said. They soon learned those relationships were over.

“We got to talking about God. Then we danced a slow song together. When I put my head on his shoulder, it just felt right,” Helen said.

She explained as the evening drew to an end, they both commented how they had church in the morning. Before parting, Helen invited Bruce to join her where she attended services the next day. To her surprise, when she showed up Sunday morning, there he was.

“I saw him talking to the preacher when I walked in. I looked up and said, ‘Really God, Bruce Grice?’ We haven’t been separated since.”

Asked what the secret to their relationship is, Helen said: “Bruce didn’t need fixing and we were both stable in our lives when we got together.”

Bruce said, “Counting Helen, I’ve been married three times.” He explained how his two previous marriages were to the same woman who he divorced and remarried.

“You can count my marriages on one hand,” Helen said. Smiling, Bruce said, “If you use all five fingers.”

She replied: “I’ve been an LPN for 30 years and the nurse in me thought I could fix people.”

Bruce added: “I figure I’m the best she is ever going to do.”

“And I figure I’m the best he’ll ever do,” Helen quickly countered.

“And she minds so well,” Bruce said, still smiling.

Helen added: “You can put that in your article but anybody who knows us will know better.”

In a more serious tone, Bruce said: “She lets me be me. I love to hunt and fish and when I tell her I’m going to Kansas to turkey hunt, she buys my hunting license. I don’t worry about her and she doesn’t worry about me.”

Helen said: “If I want to be a homebody, he lets me.” She added, “God put us together and has brought us through many situations over the years.”

Bruce said: “We cry together, we pray together and we laugh together. And now we are going to be raising a 1-year-old baby together.”

Referencing the tragedy that struck with the loss of Callie, he added, “We have been able to get through this because of God almighty. God gives you strength from way deep inside you never knew you had.”

Following almost eight years engaged, the couple tied the matrimonial knot July 19.

Telling how they finally arrived at nuptials: Helen said, “We attended Bethel No. 1 Church in Rison the Sunday before we got married. Brother Mike Goodman was preaching and Bruce’s brother Keith was leading the singing. … Brother Mike got to preaching about shacking up, saying that ain’t the way God intended. I was tucking my toes behind the pew because he was stomping on them pretty hard.”

She went on to explain how since the shooting, her sleep habits have been off. She often wakes in the night and sleeps the next morning.

“When I woke up Friday morning at 7:45, Bruce had a smorgasbord of cereal, grapes, waffles and bananas fixed for Ivy and me.”

Bruce told how the logging job he has been driving on for 14 years got rained out that day, so he came back home at 5:30 to make breakfast while letting Helen rest.

Helen said, “I got Ivy ready after breakfast and took her to the babysitter. Then I waited for the Jewelry Box in Fordyce to open at 9. When they did, I asked Mary Dell if she had any silicone rings in stock.”

They searched until they found a size 9 that would barely fit Bruce’s pinky finger and decided they could make that work for the moment.

“When I got back home at 11:30, Bruce asked what I was going to do today? I said, ‘I thought we’d drive over to the courthouse in Rison and get us a couple of those licenses,'” Helen said.

Bruce agreed.

“I said that was okay, thinking we’d get the license, then maybe get married in a couple weeks. She said, ‘I’m going to call your brother Rodney (who is a Baptist minister) and see what he’s doing tonight.” Bruce’s eyes went wide with the statement.

Helen joined in: “When I asked Rodney what he was doing around 7, he said he would be down at the river camp. Then I said, ‘That’s as good a place as any,’ and asked did he finally want to make me a Grice?”

They sent out a mass text, inviting family and co-workers to Mount Elba on the Saline River for a Friday evening wedding.

“Everyone volunteered. One did my hair and another did my makeup. Someone brought food and another brought flowers. There were about 30 people there on the riverside.”

Bruce added, “Keep in mind after eight years engaged, we bought the license at 2 and were married by 7. Our only regret is that Callie wasn’t there.”

Helen said: “Callie had always had our wedding all planned out. We told her we just wanted to go to the courthouse and have a simple ceremony but she said, ‘Oh, no, when the time comes, we’re going to have a big party!'”

A photo of Callie sat on a stand next to the newlyweds at the wedding with a bouquet beside it. That’s because Callie always wanted to be Helen’s maid-of-honor, Helen said.

Bruce said they spent their honeymoon night with a house full of family and the next day attending the first annual Fordyce Benefit Softball Tournament.

Approaching the two-month anniversary of the fatal incident, the couple was asked how they feel toward Travis Eugene Posey, the accused June 21 shooter? They pondered the question thoughtfully.

“He took a part of our heart and shattered it into pieces forever. Do I forgive him?” Bruce asked out loud. “I can’t say I do and I can’t say I don’t.”

Posey remains in custody at the Ouachita County Detention Center awaiting trial on four counts of capital murder and seven counts of attempted capital murder.

Helen replied: “Callie was my only biological child. We will relive it every day of our lives. He didn’t just take my daughter, he took my best friend. She could see the potential in people and wanted to help them reach what she saw they were capable of. I miss her so much.”

Bruce added: “And you will the rest of your life. I pray he finds God because we don’t want to see anybody suffer in hell forever.”

Referencing Callie’s funeral service in Fordyce, they explained how every room in Benton Funeral Home was filled to standing room only with friends, family and fellow health care workers.

“She was buried in her prom dress,” Helen said. “We paid $700 for it when she was in high school. That was a lot of money for a dress to wear one time, but it was what she wanted. She always said she would either be married or buried in that same dress.”

One of the hardest things Helen said she had to do was pick out Callie’s casket. “That made it all so final,” she said.

The service was closed-casket. From the nature of Callie’s injuries, Helen said, it appeared the suspected shooter could have been looking her in the eye.

“Every morning I used to wake up and text my daughter to wish her a good day,” Helen said. “Now I don’t get to.”

Instead, she now texts Hannah Sturgis, the daughter of 50-year-old Roy Sturgis, who was also taken in the senseless tragedy.

At age 1, Ivy has no idea what transpired. Bruce said: “Someday when she is old enough we are going to have to tell Ivy what happened to her mom. We have already had to explain it to our other grandchildren.” They are 21, 19, 4 and 3.

Helen said she told the two youngest ones: “Callie lives in our hearts now. She’s up in heaven working with God. She is watching over and protecting you and she loves you very, very much.” She added, “They seem to be doing okay with it.”

The suspect reportedly entered the Mad Butcher and began firing from the front door. One of the first rounds struck employee Jackie Curb, who was working a checkout register. Callie’s training as a nurse came into play and she rendered aid to the wounded woman. It was at that point that she too was shot. Curb survived while Weems perished.

“Knowing Callie aided Mrs. Jackie and helped keep her alive helps me deal with Callie’s death,” Helen concluded. “I know their blood mixed together on that floor.”

“When I took Ivy to meet Jackie, she took Ivy by the foot and said, ‘I hope you needed a granny because you’ve got a good one now.'”

Ivy calls the Grices Pawpaw and Gigi. She is the light of their newly married life together.

“When you put God first, family second and all others third, you will come out first every time,” Bruce concluded.