He’s Gone
I remember the day 6 years ago I met my next door neighbors – Jeanine & Scott, with their three kids Ashley, Parker, and Ellie who moved here from California. Great folks! We grew to become friends with their entire family – we met their in-laws, talked about yard work, school stuff, kids, and hung out numerous times for dinner and parties.
On Thursday evening their rising senior and 17 year old son Parker died after a motorcycle crash.
Parker was a handsome, bright, fun young man! He loved a lot of things – skateboarding, photography, and people to name a few. And he was curious… still trying to find his way and looking at the world ahead of him with anticipation and openness.
My memories are very succinct of him. I would always wave at Parker when I saw him outside and he ALWAYS waved and spoke back to me respectfully every time I saw him. Many young people today don’t do this with the older generations, but Parker always did.
He also made peers his age feel welcomed. Our daughter Delaney told us numerous times about how the upperclassman Parker would wave and say hi back to her in the halls of the high school. In a time of back biting and putting everyone down being the norm for teenagers, she would come home and talk about how our neighbor and “cool kid” Parker (he was a young man that other kids gravitated towards) always waved and said hello back to her when she would see him at school.
I don’t know what to do for my neighbors, except cry with them in their loss. I don’t even have enough brain capacity to consider what I would do if this were to happen to my family.
But his death is very close to me.
It’s next door.
It was a young man I knew with a very bright future.
This Real Christian Businessman is sad today.
I don’t understand why he is gone and it’s not my place to understand it.
But it’s hard.
I miss Parker.
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“Trust in the lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, In all your ways acknowledge him…”
“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.” Prov 3:5-6a (NIV & MSG)