Jalen's Moon

[gabrielized]

Friday's full moon was amazing - the closest the moon has been to us in a long time.

I wished upon it, calling it Jalen's moon.

Jalen was a beautiful 5 year old boy, the son of a friend where I work, a twin to his sister Sheriden. But last Tuesday, he died suddenly. His appendix burst, and he died. His family is heartbroken beyond belief.

Yesterday, during the visitation and memorial service, people were lined up to give their condolences to my friend and his family. Lots of people from work, and who used to work there, showed up. Our CEO showed up and like all of us, tried to comfort daddy, who we know as Big D, one of the funniest people at work.

Dad and Mom are the strongest people I have known in a long time - they got up and talked about their son, kept it together better than I could have.

And now, the rest of that family's life goes on, without their Jalen, and they will never be the same.

I never had kids, and I cannot imagine the intense pain they feel. I know that the pain pervaded the funeral home yesterday, it just shot through me in waves.

So many thoughts ran through my head, how lucky my family is, really, our kids being healthy and growing up to be young men and women. We haven't had a tragedy in our family like this since I was a kid myself.

And those long ago tragedies of children lost came to my mind; my friend David, in a freak baseball accident. My brother in laws loss of his sister inlaw and her kids, in an auto accident.

It's an impossible loss for my friend to recover from. Now we can be there for him. But that's all we can do.
But from now on, December's full moon will be Jalen's moon, at least to me, and I believe to other people too.

[JustAnotherUserName]

It's not an impossible loss to recover from, but those of us who have lost children can decided how we choose to let it define us. Certainly there were days I wanted to stay in bed and never get up again, but that would do no honor to my son and would also send an awful message to my other two children. Every day is a bit of "recovery," and I hope your friend embraces this opportunity to re-invent himself as he realizes what is and what is not important in life. Those two things kind of reversed themselves for me. In the end, we all just do the best we can...Best to you and your friend...