She buckles a stuffed teddy bear into a baby car seat and heads down the same two-lane country road where her son was killed in 2014.

The teddy bear’s skin is denim — a favorite pair of Jacob Akers’ jeans. Its shirt is purple, the color of Lipscomb University, where Akers had graduated pre-med just two months before the crash. Carol Akers can’t face life without the bear’s soft presence.

Jacob Akers, 22, was killed in a head-on collision on Highway 49 in Dickson County, days after proposing to his high school sweetheart. Prosecutors allege that the other driver was under the influence of hydrocodone, a prescription opioid painkiller, and amphetamines.

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