SARANAC LAKE - As a 17-year-old, Eli Drury left home to travel the world and "carve his own path," as his father put it.
That journey eventually led him to a path of spirituality and religious fulfillment, until his life was cut short this week.
Drury, who grew up in Saranac Lake, died in a car crash Tuesday night outside of Jacksonville, Fla., when the Toyota Corolla he was driving pulled into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer. The 31-year-old and two friends who were passengers in his car were all pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the semi suffered minor injuries.
It wasn't until Wednesday morning that word of what had happened reached Drury's parents, Jack Drury and Carmen Ordonez, who are divorced but both still live in Saranac Lake. Ordonez, a teacher at Saranac Lake Middle School, and Phyllis Drury, Jack's second wife and a teacher's assistant at Petrova Elementary School, were called into Petrova Principal Josh Dann's office for a phone call from Ordonez's sister.
Jack was driving to Utica to get a new cap installed on his wife's pickup truck when he got the call from Phyllis at about 11:30 a.m.
"I can only say that the pain of losing your first-born son is worse that you can imagine," Jack would later post on Facebook. "Love only a father can know ... sadness only a parent can know."
---
"An independent soul"
Born in Saranac Lake in April 1980, Eli Drury grew up in his family's home on Lower Saranac Lake with his brother Dustin, who was three years his junior.
Like many local kids, Eli played a lot of sports, primarily baseball and basketball. He was a page to the Winter Carnival Court in 1989. The Drurys, including Eli, were also regular participants in the Willard Hanmer Guideboat and Canoe Races.
Jack says his two sons weren't particularly close, but Dustin said he looked up to his big brother.
"Anyone who knew us as kids knew Eli liked to pick on me," Dustin said in an email, "but at the same time he was the kind of brother that was the first to defend me if anyone else was picking on me besides him."
By the time Eli reached his mid to late teens, however, his interest in school began to wane. He ended up in a private school for his junior year of high school.
"He came back and said, 'I've had enough school,' and he was ready to kind of search the world, and he did," Jack told the Enterprise Thursday. "He became an intrepid traveler, starting at the age of 17 or 18. He was sort of on a quest of which a lot of kids that age are. He had to carve his own path."
---
The spiritual path
At one point during his travels, Eli visited his uncle, Carlos Ordonez, who lived in a Hare Krishna community in West Virginia.
"He ended up spending a couple weeks there, and it really kind of changed his life," Jack said. "He found the spiritual path. Before that, he wasn't living a very healthy lifestyle - you know, drugs and alcohol. He told me later that he couldn't make the change himself. He needed the religious discipline."
At first, Jack said he was apprehensive about his son's involvement with the Hare Krishna community at such a young age, but after visiting him several times, he grew to understand and appreciate Eli's devotion to his faith.
Dustin said he was initially "a little annoyed" by his brother's finding religion because "he wanted to convert everyone and loved to pick apart what we were doing wrong with our lives." But, "I never had any reservations because I could see that this was a better path than the one he was going down before."
Eventually, Eli Drury took a Hare Krishna name, Nitai Das, and married a Croatian woman named Mandali Mendrila. They had no children.
---
Festivals
Jack Drury said Eli had an interest in audio engineering and would visit different Hare Krishna temples to record sermons and music. He eventually got into food service and traveled around the country providing vegetarian Hare Krishna food for thousands of people at music festivals like Burning Man in Nevada.
"I was so happy recently as he got into this food service and setting up these kitchens for these festivals," Jack said. "It seemed like he had found a way to make a living and support his wife."
"The person Eli became was more amazing than anything anyone in Saranac Lake that knew him could have known," Dustin said. "If you saw him in his element helping and feeding people, you know he developed into the kind of person that it was more important to feed other people than it was to feed himself."
---
The accident
Eli's travels didn't stop when he became a Hare Krishna. He roamed across the country and around the world, visiting Hare Krishna temples and furthering his spiritual studies. He had been to India numerous times, his father said.
Eli was visiting friends at a Hare Krishna temple in Gainesville, Fla., at the time of his death. Jack Drury said he believes Eli and his friends were returning from selling merchandise at an event when the accident took place.
"They'd go to different events, and they would sell their wares," Jack said. "What they're really doing is looking for lost souls to offer spiritual advice to.
"My understanding is they were either coming or going to an event, they had just filled up with gas, and they pulled out and had to pull across opposing traffic. At this point, from what I've read, it looks like Eli was at fault, that he didn't see the oncoming truck. But it's still being investigated."
---
"In a fog"
Jack said the family has seen an "overwhelming" outpouring of condolences and support from the community since the accident. He admits he still hasn't come to grips with what happened, which he said has brought back memories of past tragedies in his life.
"We're still in a fog," Jack said. "I didn't sleep too well last night. I lost my mom in a car accident in 1988. It probably was the most traumatic event of my life, and this trumps that by a long shot."
"I'm still in a state of shock," Dustin said Thursday night. "Yesterday it slowly hit me, but today was much worse.
"He had an infectious laugh that I will miss dearly. If you only knew him from high school and before that, I encourage you to take a look at his Facebook page (Nitai Das). The outpouring of love is amazing, and it brings me to tears every time I pull it up."
---
Services
The family will fly to Florida on Saturday for a memorial service for Eli on Sunday at the Hare Krishna temple in Gainesville.
Dustin said his brother will be cremated and that the family, including Eli's wife, will bring his ashes to India next week to place him in his final resting place.
A memorial service is also planned in Saranac Lake, sometime in the spring or early summer.
