Joel

Tonight I want to add another school memory. When I was a freshman in high school I decided to try out for cheer leading. I didn't even really want to be one, just to have tried out. We were paired with other girls and I was matched up with a girl named Adrianna. We tried out together and both made it. She went on to become a cheerleader and I decided not to. She dated a football player throughout high school named Joel and they married shortly after. Joel and I have been friends since middle school. He was the boy who gave me the Grand Tetons nickname in middle school and drove me insane. But we were friends. Out of high school we worked together for awhile for my aunt at Oneida. She loved him because he was so fun and he got away with never doing any work. A few years later we both had kids. He has a son, Jacob, Siobhans age and a son, Nathan, around Oscars age. Siobhan and Jacob attended the Pacific Grove Cooperative Preschool together. A requirement was working at the school one day a week. We traded off babysitting for each other and hung out a great deal at the preschool. The kids played at the park together and had a lot of fun. Joel was an amazing friend to me at that time and a really great listener. When I left for Utah I missed him and his family. We spoke on the phone for awhile and eventually I was off onto a whole new life. My heart is absolutely broken tonight. Joel was hit by a car on Tuesday in front of the middle school we had attended and died. I am in a state of numbness right now and I grieve for not only him but his boys and Adrianna. Jacob is autistic and to watch him with his Dad was something special. He was an extremely devoted father and worked in the evenings to care for the boys during the day. He was patient and loving and I am just so sad. Please, please say a prayer for his family. I hope and pray that Adrianna is okay. I hope that Joel didn't suffer and that he is at peace. I will miss you Joel and always treasure our friendship. I will always remember what a good friend you were to me. I will always keep your family in my prayers and be amongst the many that will have great stories for your boys about you. God rest you, with love, Grand Tetons.