Twenty-five years today, we lost a son, a brother, and a steadfast, unique individual to all who knew him. His death turned the week from heaven into the week from hell.
Those years have passed by, as years seem to do, in the proverbial blink of an eye. Thank God that we have twenty-nine years of memories to draw upon before that awful day when Gary left us.
We all miss you dearly. I think all the time of what might have been in your life, in your career, in your marriage . . .
You were a good man and the world would be a far better place with you in it.
We all love you, my son!
Dad (Duke)
Duke
Not sure why I feel your pain but I do. As a young man I hadn’t the foggiest clue what it meant to truly love someone until the birth of my oldest child. His mother had an emergency cicerone when they couldn’t get a heartbeat during delivery. An alarm was sounded and all Hell broke loose. Several nurses rushed into the delivery room as an 8 month pregnant doctor was yelling out orders. She was calling out for another doctor to assist but no one was available. I stood back trying to stay out of the way as I prayed to God for my child and his mother’s lives. The emergency turned out to be faulty equipment and when it was replaced my son’s heart beat was restored. They took his mother into the operating room more out of fear than precaution, but I wasn’t objecting. The doctor looked spent and there was concern for her too. Fortunately, another doctor was available to assist for the cicerone operation and a healthy child entered this world a few minutes later.
Although I don’t consider myself religious I do believe strongly in God. I believe that although the body may die, the soul does not. Your son’s soul and Stacey Burn’s soul is alive and well somewhere. Although removed from this world in a painful (to those left behind) and untimely manner, we will once again be reunited with them. Not everyone will go forward into this next world. Some seriously flawed individuals will have the light turned out on their souls. I expect the killers of Stacey Burns to likely fall into that category. However, it is not my place to judge their souls. It is however societies place to judge what happens to the physical body.
Best wishes on this most difficult of days and all your days forward until you are reunited with your son once again.
My thoughts are with you and your family Duke. I can’t even begin to imagine how it must feel to lose a child.