Friends, family of 17-year-old crash victim hold prayer circle to remember his life

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A 17-year-old’s life was cut short after a deadly crash in Oldham County Monday night.

On Friday, people who knew Ayden Altman came together at LaGrange Church of Christ to remember the time they had with him.

Friends and classmates of Altman wanted to give his family what he always gave them, a smile. Monday night was a night those gathered at a prayer circle will never forget.

On Dec. 5, Altman and his friend crashed into a rock embankment on I-71 south, but were not hurt.

Altman got out of the car and was trying to reach the shoulder when a semi that was trying to avoid the car hit him. He died before EMS was able to get him to the hospital.

His friends said they were not able to process the news right away.

“I didn’t believe it,” Altman’s friend Mason Sedoris said. “I was in so much shock. I heard it Saturday morning from my best friend, who was also in the car.”

“I texted everyone and was like, please tell me it’s not real, please tell me it’s not real,” friend Hayley Edds shared. “And they said, ‘yeah it’s real.’ And I literally had to text his parents to confirm it because it was literally like so gut-wrenching and something I never wanted to feel.”

One week later, his closest friends chose to remember how Altman lived, instead of how he died.

“We just felt like we needed to do this to get everyone together. We felt like the school wasn’t enough, getting everyone together at the school wasn’t enough,” Edds said. “We needed his family to be here and people from other schools and things like that.”

To their surprise, dozens of folks attended the event to show their support.

One friend told WAVE News that it’s a testament to who Ayden was and how much he cared for others.

“He was an amazing dude,” Sedoris said. “He was there for a lot of people, and knowing how many people he knew and how he branched out to different places is very big.”

The group hosted a prayer circle and a balloon release to honor Altman and shared why so many people chose to call him a friend.

“His outgoing personality,” Sedoris explained. “Him just constantly smiling, uplifting others and his generosity.”

“The excitement he brought into every single room he stepped foot in,” friend Laney Potts said. “Yeah, like there wasn’t like not one smile when walked into the room.”

Altman’s friends said he loved big trucks, so they plan to also have a huge car and truck ride Saturday from Southeast Christian in LaGrange to the Oldham County High School football field at 5:30 p.m.

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