Eleven years ago today, the world lost one of the best people to ever walk its surface. Jeremy was more than my cousin; he was my best friend, my brother, my confidante. He was friendly and nice to everyone, he had all the little girls tripping over themselves to get to him and he was amazing in everyone’s eyes.
Except those few that made it their mission to make his life hell. They tormented him in school and then would follow him home, taunting him the whole way. You’d think it would stop once he got home, no? No. They stood outside his house and yelled their taunts. His father would come home to find him in his room, hiding from the hurt.
On October 4, 2001, Jeremy waited until his parents had gone to work and his brother and gone to school. Then he got his dad’s .22 handgun out of the safe in the bedroom, sat on the living room floor and put a bullet through his left temple. His older brother, my cousin, came home and found him that afternoon. He called his mom and said, “I think Jeremy’s dead.”
No one saw it coming. He was 13 years old.
It ripped our family apart. We don’t do anything together anymore whereas we used to go camping all summer, shooting in the woods of Remer, MN, hunting, fishing, ATVing … always as a family, all of the aunts, uncles, cousins and my grandparents. Now … nothing. The occasional Christmas, but only if I push everyone to do it, my grandma’s 75th birthday …
I miss him so much, time has not healed this wound. It still hurts just as much today as it did this day eleven years ago.
I miss you, J. You were everything to everyone and the world’s not the same with out you. I love you so much. We all do. ♥
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