41-year-old Bryan Delk spent 16 years patrolling the streets as a Columbia police officer and two more as a commercial truck driver.  His family says he loved to be on the road both at work and taking trips with his children in the family Jeep, and ironically it's the road where Delk's life would end.

"Sometimes I just think I'm going to wake up from this nightmare and I'm going to realize that it was just a bad dream and I so wish that would happen," said Laurie Delk, Bryan's wife of almost 20 years.  "We had a great marriage.  I loved him."

Saturday morning Bryan was driving a FedEx van on I-24 near Murfreesboro when he crashed in bad weather.

"It was snowing turning to ice so quick," Laurie Delk said.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol says Delk slid into the back of a truck that had slowed down in front of him trying to avoid a crash.

"The whole front end got squashed into him, they said to the passenger side," Laurie Delk said.

Bryan Delk died from his injuries just five days after celebrating his 41st birthday.

Now the Jeep in which Delk loved to drive his kids around sits still in front of the family's home in Columbia.  To fill the silence, Laurie reached out to friends on Facebook.

"I posted on my page asking people, if you knew him, if you have any stories or neat things, please tell me," Laurie Delk said.

She was flooded with notes from friends and even complete strangers with stories about how Bryan made their lives just a little brighter.  She has enough entries to start a journal.

"I don't know what I'll do with it," Laurie Delk said.  "Someday so I can read it over and over."

Funeral services are scheduled for this Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. at the Heritage Funeral Home in Columbia.

You can watch Fox 17's complete interview with Laurie Delk on the Raw News section of this websiteMan Killed in Crash Loved to Drive, Family Says - Eric Alvarez