Wednesday, June 13, 2012
It has been very difficult to write a fitting tribute to my friend Justin. I have spent a lot of time in the last few days trying to put the right words on paper. One thing is for certain; a number of words kept coming back as I would sit down to think about this. Father, Husband, Son, Soldier and Friend. Of course, another word that you can’t forget when you talk about Justin is “Tattoo�. If you ever drank beer with Justin, and I did on occasion, you got the story of his Tattoos. Each one marked the most important things in his life. He expressed his love of Ryan, his kids and his family on his arms. He expressed his pride in his days in the Army and his service to our country also on his arms. He also had one word on his side that I have taken comfort in since I learned the tragic news last week. On his side he had the word HOPE. I have thought a lot about that word in the last few days. At the worst times in the last week, I looked in the wrong places for the definition of the word HOPE. Friedrich Nietzsche tried to define HOPE – He said, “Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man.� But that is not the hope my friend held when he had that permanently placed on his side. HOPE is the opposite of despair. HOPE is what makes us strong. It is what we fight with. Jeremiah Chapter 29, I believe, perfectly exemplifies Justin’s idea of hope, his family and especially his three boys. “For I know the plans I have for you,� says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.� I wrote a letter to Justin the night I learned of his passing that I would like to share. “I will miss you profoundly.  You probably never realized the influence you had on me. You were an amazing father, husband, hero and friend.  It will take so much effort to fill the void you have left.   I will still sit on my back porch and pretend you are with me, drinking a beer and laughing at how incredible our six boys are.  We will both watch how incredible they are and how they do, but it will be way too long until we get to share the stories. I will miss you more than you could have ever known. Your friend, Joe As I wrote to Justin on that horrible night, I will miss him terribly. But I know that there has always been a plan for him, a plan for good and not disaster, and his future and his hope is with his wife and his three boys. And one day we will all get to sit around and share the many years worth of stories. I will always look forward to that.
