MOOERS "" Heather Manor can't help but smile, thinking how her late husband, Darcy, would react to her new hobby "" golf.

"He must be laughing at me right now," she said.

Times past, the Mooers couple teased aunts and uncles about playing a sport that didn't make much sense "" not to Heather and Darcy anyhow.

But as Heather practices for the Aug. 19 North Country Golf Club Benefit Tournament for the future education of her sons, Jake and Evan, she finds it a good distraction.

"It's keeping my mind off other things," she said.

Among them is the prosecution of Glen D. Race, who is charged with Darcy's May 10 murder. Thursday, for a second time this month, Race failed to appear in Mooers Town Court for a preliminary felony hearing. Whether he'll waive that step in the process entirely is unknown.

A Clinton County grand jury is expected to hear the case later this month, according to District Attorney Andrew Wylie.

Race, incarcerated in Clinton County Jail and also charged with two homicides in the Halifax, Nova Scotia, area, "is going to have more rights than Darcy ever had," Heather said. "You just have to accept that."

She has worked on that acceptance by swinging the golf club, by returning to her job at a local manufacturing plant.

"It's the best thing I could have done for me and my kids "" get back in the routine," she said.

Continuing community support offers its own source of strength, too.

"There are no words that can express what everybody's doing daily for me and my kids, the whole family," Heather said.

Already, about 36 four-person teams have signed up for the tournament, said Alan Cardin, an uncle of Darcy's who is organizing the event.

Gifts of cash total $7,000 so far, some of which will be prize money for the golfers.

"We want to give something back to the people that are playing," Cardin said.