An eldest daughter’s perspective on the passing of Donna Milligan Cline
On the evening of August 20, 2023, Emma Grace Turnipseed (née Cline), tried to call her beloved mother as she left Tuscaloosa, Ala. to return home from a visit with her youngest daughter, Mara Eva Cline.
The call to Donna Milligan Cline went directly to voicemail. Turnipseed thought she’d call again in 30 minutes as her mother could’ve been missing Mara Eva after sending her to college for the first time. The time passed, and Turnipseed made four more calls. No response.
Turnipseed had her mom’s location on the Find My Friends iPhone app, but didn’t have the more in-depth tracking system of Life360. Nonetheless, she checked to see where Donna might be and the app said her phone rested in a junkyard.
“I thought she had been kidnapped,” Turnipseed said. “A car accident never even crossed my mind.”
Her father, Robert Cline, saw that Donna’s car was completely stopped on Interstate 20 outside of Tuscaloosa. He pulled up a map and saw a large black line – indicating a complete stoppage – in the area. He told Turnipseed that he would drive toward the site of the incident, which became increasingly apparent to be a crash.
All the while, Turnipseed’s husband, Boyd Turnipseed, began to call area hospitals. He then saw a story in the Tuscaloosa Thread that a white Ford Expedition, the make of Donna’s car, was involved in a crash with a Chevrolet Colorado. Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene.
“I don’t think she’s OK,” Emma Grace said to her husband, sobbing.
Robert, on his way to Tuscaloosa, received a call from the Georgia State Troopers. They asked him to turn around and awaited him in his driveway. He knew what it meant. Donna had passed.
Robert let out a horrific scream on the phone. Emma Grace crumpled to the floor.
“That will haunt me until the day I die,” Emma Grace said.
Donna Milligan Cline, 59, was killed in the Aug. 20 accident in an unfathomable event for the Cline family. Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of an event that carries plenty of grief for a lifetime.
Many months after the accident, in March 2024, the family discovered unnerving news. The driver of the Chevrolet Colorado had a BAC three times over the legal limit, according to a toxicology report.
Emma Grace’s perspective stems from the value of Donna in her life, memories with her mother. Donna set an example for Emma Grace raising her first child, Tillman “Tilly” Rose Turnipseed.
“She is the most magical, kindest person you could ever meet,” Emma Grace said of her late mother. “It doesn’t matter who it was, she was always there to help someone. She was such a giver, and she did everything she could to give my sister (Mara Eva) and I the very best world. She was the epitome of the very best mom.
“I’m truly so happy to have no regrets. She was my best friend.”
The following day after Donna’s passing, Emma Grace posted to Facebook to share the news of her late mother’s passing. The Cline family knew Donna had some sort of influence within Buford, but never knew the extent of how greatly a community embraced her. Emma Grace received an influx of messages and calls in the coming moments, not to mention what her sister Mara Eva and father Robert received.
Donna’s visitation came in the coming days at Flanagan Funeral Home. It took four hours for the line of visitors to end. Her funeral came at the town’s church, First Baptist Buford. The crowd became standing-room only.
“We stood there thinking ‘She probably had no idea the amount of people she had an impact on simply by being kind,’” Emma Grace said.
Donna influenced Buford in a myriad of ways. She designed costumes, sold tickets and played a significant role in the fine arts’ department as a helping hand to longtime director Kimberly Staples. She became a household name, in a sense, when one mentions Buford and the green-and-gold.
For Emma Grace, it stretches far beyond what people saw on the outside. It comes from all of the memories. The family never failed to have a big Christmas. Emma Grace had an obsession with Ty Beanie Babies, so they’d make trips to the post office to go pick them up.
At 8 years of age, Donna and Robert sat Emma Grace on the couch. They readied to let her know she’d be having a baby sibling, eventually Mara Eva. They asked her, “What do you want more than anything in the world?”
“I started smiling so big,” Emma Grace said. “I said ‘Oh my gosh, y’all got me a baby pig?’”
Over it all, Emma Grace’s favorite memories with her late mother come weeks and months prior to the accident. On the day Emma Grace told Donna she was pregnant with who would be Tilly, her late mother ran to the store and began shopping for baby clothes that night without knowing the gender.
Throughout the pregnancy, Emma Grace returned to Georgia from Las Vegas to make visits. They’d take exquisite dinner trips. They’d go on shopping sprees. They made sure to have the best time together. When the time came, Donna had the pleasure of meeting Emma Grace’s pride and joy, Tilly.
At six weeks postpartum, Donna passed away.
“My daughter has literally saved my life,” Emma Grace said. “I know, for a fact, that God sent her to me at that time (for a reason). If it weren’t for her, I truly don’t know if I would still be here.”
A rocking chair sits in Tilly’s nursery. Emma Grace sits there with her newborn daughter rather frequently. She might cry while looking at pictures of Tilly and Donna. She might smile because Emma Grace holds so much gratitude that Donna had the opportunity to meet her daughter. It’s her church, after all, and most of the prayers made in that chair turn into smiles.
Through it all, Emma Grace never forgets that harrowing night of the crash that killed her mother. Her final words, however, were “I love you.” Emma Grace always knew her mother did.
Emma Grace lives to carry on that legacy.
“The best compliment I could ever be told is that I am a good mom,” Emma Grace said. “That means I am showing others a glimpse as to what my mom was to me.”
*Photos courtesy of Emma Grace Cline Turnipseed
