Paper Hugs and Die Cut Dreams

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Rest in Peace







The young man you see here, so obviously full of life, took his own life this week. He hung himself on September 10th for reasons unknown to me or my daughter.

His name was Mike. He served our country. He called me Mom. I considered him one of "my boys". He was one of the group my daughter hung with regularly and he's gone. Never to be seen by us again.

Over on Apron Strings Designs, we go through a "journaling" exercise for the 10th of every month, normally posted on the 11th. It's the "snapshots" of what happened that day. This month, I went slightly off due to finding out about Mikey. Here's my post to the Apron Strings Yahoo group....


It's actually 12:15 on the 11th here in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, on the 10th of this particular month, I got the news that one of MY boys - one of my daugther's many friends who call me Mom - hung himself this evening...So I apologize for what should be something fun, but on this day - the 10 moments I remember best for Mikey....

1. The high five with Jimmy over Amanda's head at her birthday party.

2. Trying to throw Amanda into the garbage can

3. Losing his "beep beep" - no phone signal

4. Being the middle of the human tower

5. The adventure of getting into the huge tree over at the park

6. Have the axel on the car break - the whole wheel was actually off the car with about a foot of the axel

7. Coming within two inches of my back bumper trying to park his huge Cadillac in my driveway

8. Going up and down and up and down and up and down 6 streets to get to the beach when he only needed to take one!

9. Being stranded in the gazeebo in the pouring rain!

10. And unfortunately - truly truly last...the news that he had taken his own life.


I need to put it here on the blog. I needed to do it for me. It's not scrapbook related and that's generally what I have here. But it's a scrapbook of some sorts and in this case a small tribute for a young man who probably didn't realize how many lives he touched and what he meant to so many people by just being himself.

May you and yours never have to deal with anything like this....


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry. I can see you have wonderful memories of him. May your heart find ease.

Swedie

Deb said...

I'm sorry that you and your family are in the midst of dealing with a tragedy. May your memories help you through this difficult time.

Libby Hickson said...

Oh Vicki I am so very sorry about this.

Donna said...

This is so sad Vicki, my thoughts are with you and your family. Donna x

Vicki said...

Vicki, this is so, so sad for all of you! You, your family, Mike and Mike's family are in my thoughts and prayers during this tragic event in your lives.