PORT ANGELES — Scott Franklin started the morning just like any other.
He got up early, said goodbye to his wife who was still in bed and headed out the door for his daily walk.
The 50-year-old Sequim man would take his normal route: past Carrie Blake Park, down Washington Street and eventually to a nursing home to see his father, whom he would bring a newspaper.
But last Thursday, the paper would never come.
Scott was struck by an alleged drunken driver while walking past a tattoo parlor at 618 E. Washington St.
He died two days later at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after being taken off life support.
The accused motorist, 51-year-old Gene S. Mensik, jumped the curb and struck Scott on the sidewalk, police said.
He was charged at a brief court appearance Tuesday with vehicular homicide and hit-and-run fatality; he remained Tuesday in the Clallam County jail in lieu of a $200,000 bond.
Scott’s wife, Opal Franklin, sat in the audience with her three children. With her eyes on Mensik, she felt anger, but above all, grief.
What’s going through his mind? she wondered to herself.
Does he feel remorse?
“It’s just horrible,” she later said. “And it’s still horrible.”
On Thursday, Opal drove past the scene of police and medics responding to the hit-and-run, not knowing what had happened.
She found out later that day when a police officer, who was a friend of the family, phoned to tell her the news.
Opal, who described Scott as a “very supportive” husband and father, said she was struck by “utter disbelief.”
Scott Franklin, his wife explained, started walking to avoid an early death. He had lost 130 pounds, his wife said.
“He chose to live,” she said.
The couple, who have three adult children, moved to Sequim four years ago from California so that Scott could care for his parents.
His mother died about a year later.
Scott continued working as an electrician for a company in California after they moved to Sequim, his wife said.
Their children also live on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“He [Scott] was everything a father should have been and more,” said their eldest, 23-year-old Courtney Franklin of Sequim.
The night before he was hit by the car, Scott phoned his brother, Curt Wagoner of The Dalles, Ore.
He was excited, Wagoner said, because a nearly 4-year-old lawsuit he had filed was finally going to trial.
“He was so happy that something was going to happen,” Wagoner said. “He called twice that night.”
He added: “He must have been on cloud nine walking down that street that day.”
The lawsuit is against Scott’s nephew, Matt Ovist. It alleges that he owes the Franklins $70,000 plus interest for a failed business deal.
Opal, a Safeway cashier, said they have since gone into bankruptcy and she is not sure how she is going to make ends meet.
Donations to the family can be made at the Sequim First Federal, 333 N. Sequim Ave.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
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