~Remembering Jeff~

What a very Heart wrenching time it has been for my family these past several days. On Saturday we got word that my cousin Jeff had been killed in a tragic hunting accident. A very young, 36 year old father of 4 girls, Bethany, Emily, Maggie Mae, and Alyson, and husband to Denise. So full of life and loved living. For the last several days, we have sat and listened to and told of stories of things that Jeff had done in his short life. We have laughed and cried. During the funeral the preacher mentioned a story about a toilet being blown up at school, I made a mental note to ask Uncle Roy about that one, I had not heard that. They talked about how he turned his life around and started living it for the Lord. Jeff was a very talented Machinist, what some beautiful iron work he had done. There was a beautiful center piece he had done for the Christmas center piece I saw, it was a cross with a stainless steel trimmed brass heart in the middle of it, 3 gold candles around the bottom and 2 wrought iron roses with a hummingbird on it. It is gorgeous. What a legacy those girls have to remember.

He is planted (not buried, as the preacher said, when you "bury" something you want to forget it, we do not want to ever forget Jeff. When you "Plant" something you want something good and wonderful to come from it and that is what we want, even thought right now, we cannot imagine what GOOD can EVER come out of something so tragic and senseless, but it is part of the master plan), over looks Uncle Roys Lake in his back yard. It will not be long before Uncle Roy has a gate in the fence right there where Jeff is and the underbrush cleared out of the trees between his deck and Jeff's grave. Before I left last night he was talking about those very things. This is almost the exact view from Jeff's grave, ( I borrowed this photo from Sheri, THANKS SHERI, by the way that is uncle CW on the dock), Only between Jeff and the lake you can see the chicken house.

As we were sitting on the deck yesterday afternoon, I asked about the commode thingy... Well, as we all know when Jeff was younger, he was quite a rounder.... But this is really something.. He and his "FRIEND" rigged up 2 candles to burn only a short time and when they burned down it would ignite "2" fire crackers (each equal to 1/2 stick of dynamite). They rigged this up between classes and lit the candles just before heading back to class. As they were sitting in class, Jeff turned to his friend and said "it should be going off just about "NOW"", and at that time, it blew, blowing the toilet apart and parts of it out into the hall and water running everywhere. Jeff just sat there looking "Innocent". They were in their meanest teachers room at the time and she looked square at, you got it "JEFF"... Nothing was done, because they could not prove he had done it, but she KNEW!!!!! Always getting into something.

Another story that was told was about his class ring.. Boy did Uncle Roy get "Snuckered" as Jeff's friend said on this one!!!! Jeff asked Uncle Roy if he would pay for his class ring if Jeff paid the first $50.00. Uncle Roy thinking OK, it would be about $200.00, Sure I will do that. So Jeff ordered the ring. A few weeks later, he came in and showed Uncle Roy his friends ring and told him, if he could get back to the Jewelry store before 5 he could get his that day too, so Roy asked him to get his Check book... Roy proceeded to make out the check and asked Jeff how much it was..... To his AMAZEMENT and DISBELIEF ( not sure why that one, because after all it was JEFF).... He was told $849.00!!!!!!!!!!!! Jeff had ordered a pro ball player ring, with a REAL RUBY in it and a DIAMOND in the middle of the RUBY... Then to make matters worse, he would sit on the bus and cut squares in the glass on the windows with the diamond and peck on them till they fell out, leaving holes in the glass... They all knew it, because after all, who else had a DIAMOND in their ring.

There are so many more stores like this about Jeff, but time nor space permits listing them all, But Jeff was a FUN person to be around. He will truly be missed by all who knew him...

Channel 11 in Little Rock did a tribute to him on the 10 o'clock news last nite. Here is the link to the story: http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72288&catid=2 What an honor to him and to our Family.. The church was so full yesterday, so many friends, family and loved ones. The first song that was played, Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me Lord" sung by Jeff... He wanted to learn that song and sing it in Church, because his dad always sang that song. A song sung by Aunt Rosie, "Paid in Full" was played and several others by my cousins and their quartet, one of them Raymond had written, but right now I cannot remember the name of it. Will look that up and post it later.. Beautiful songs sung for a Beautiful person. So many emotions...

Jeff We LOVE you and you will be MISSED by all who knew you!!!!!!