Steve Ensminger Jr. tragically lost the love of his life when his wife Carley McCord passed away in a plane crash in Louisiana on Saturday. McCord was a sports reporter for New Orleans’ NBC affiliate WDSU and was simply traveling on a small plane with six other people to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl between LSU and Oklahoma.
McCord was also the daughter-in-law of LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger, who decided he was still going to coach during the Tigers in their 63-28 victory shortly after hearing the news.
On Monday, Ensminger opened up to ABC about his final communication with his wife, when he revealed the last text he got from her was a message that read “I love you” prior to taking off on the fatal flight. He stated he did not see it in time to respond back.
“I don’t have my phone and she sends me a message saying she loved me,” he said. “One of the hardest things I’m dealing with is that I missed her text and I missed her call. It is by far the most pain, angst and terror and just darkest time of my life.”
“It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I finally fall asleep,” Ensminger told ABC News. “Every once in a while throughout the day, I find myself grabbing my phone and sending a text to her phone replying, ‘I love you too.’
“Now I don’t know if that’s crazy of me or not, but I’m praying she gets my message. And I wish there was a way she could let me know she has.”
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Four others also died on the flight, while the lone survivor was 37-year-old Stephen Berzas, who remains in critical condition with burns over 75 percent of his body, according to ABC.
Ensminger told ABC News that he got the tragic news from his aunt.
“My aunt Betty called and she told me I need to sit down right now and listen carefully,” he said. “And that’s when my world fell apart.”
