Jeremy died.

Jeremy is the kids' cousin, Dan's nephew, in Bakersfield, CA. He just recently was diagnosed with some really rare cancer, the doctors had never seen anything like it before, it was some sort of "noma" that swelled up all his organs. He died today, just months after they found it. He was only 20 years old. Dan was already there, he had been in Cali for some time, they had called all the family together a few days ago, knowing the end was imminent.

I had a good cry about it, and am a little weepy now writing about it. Amanda politely listened to me cry on the phone, and then probably did a little herself. He was so young, and had so many plans. He was a non conformist to the hilt. He was an amazing athlete, and he was a respectful boy that loved his mom. We always thought it was cool that Jeremy was Amanda's age, and his brother Josh was Katie's age. I can't imagine how Josh is dealing with it, and his mom, Dan's sister. I'm sure Dan's mom is beside herself. We only went out to California about 4 times while we were married, but we spent a lot of time with Shelly (Dan's sister, Jeremy's mom) and I'm just so sad that this has happened to them. The silver lining I suppose is that there is mucho family out there, to help them all deal with it. Dan has 4 sisters total, so I'm sure they're all leaning on each other hard right now.

If you're a believer, I'm asking you to pray for strength for this family. They haven't always been nice to me, but they deserve some mercy and grace now.

And if you're not, well..think a nice thought about Jeremy today. He was a good guy.