hubby found out from his youngest daughter that his nephew, a great...

[bridgit]

young man of 27, had died; he's very upset. has of course known him since he was a little snapper...

he had received a degree in civil engineering two years back, and just completed a tour with the peace corp in Africa, helping folks with life systems.

two, of four, that died of a freak accident while on a sail boat in Africa the day before he was to come back here to the states. his mother had trepidations about his going, and now she is confirmed and very sad, as is the whole family.

i can tell that this young man was very special, by way & by virtue of the bits of conversation i pick up as hubby speaks with is daughters reconfirming to one another his specialty as an individual, and as well the paper thin nature of life sometimes; pleading with them by way of confirmation; that they remain careful & vigilant on their paths. it's all very sad...

there will be no names here, as this is just 'a message board'; but it is nonetheless true, a saddened fact, that a very special young american of 27 has lost his life in the course of helping others...services will be observed in his, and his mother's beloved Pacific NW

:cry:

[miss_american_pie]

1. I'm so sorry for your loss

He sounds like a special soul. :hug:

[bridgit]

14. thank you, his soul was very special indeed...

[bicentennial_baby]

2. oh dear...

sweetie... :hug: :hug:

one for each of you... :loveya:

[bridgit]

15. i'm very sad b_babe...

watching how sad this family is over their, and now my loss; i wish i could have known him the way they talk about him being so proactive & progressive in his life choices :cry:

[blondeatlast]

3. Oh, dear, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Thank you for sharing the life of a great young man with us.

:hug:

[bridgit]

16. it is a great sorrow...

thanks :hug:

[In_The_Wind]

4. I'm very sorry, bridgit.

:hug:

[bridgit]

17. Joan, the details of this young person's life are noteworthy as well...

:hug:

[Catshrink]

5. Thank you for sharing his story.

I'm sad for your loss and don't know the right words to say. I have two nephews about that age and I can't imagine losing either of them -- and one is in the Guard. :grouphug:

[bridgit]

18. please be mindful of the time you have with them, dear...

not that you won't...just please do :hug:

[NewWaveChick1981]

6. Bridgit, I'm so sorry for you and your family.

:hug: He sounds like he had so much going for him. I'm keeping you and your family in my thoughts. :hug:

[bridgit]

21. life...what can i say NWC, it just keeps coming at you...

:hug:

[bigwillq]

7. I am very sorry for your loss.

:hug: :cry:

[bridgit]

23. thank you, bigwillq , you're always most kind & i've always been...

so very appreciative of that, friend :hug:

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. So sorry for the loss in your family

:hug: for your husband and you

:hug: for the boy's mother and family

[bridgit]

24. thank you, Nell, love to you & yours, sweets...

:hug:

[Sugar Smack]

9. That's horrible, bridgit.

I'm really sorry. That was too young an age to lose his life. :hug:

[bridgit]

13. Czarina please, you are aware of my snippets yes yet still...

this world; by each & every headline is a no-less than torn from time to time; a sticky, ill-smelt orb of piteous, enigmatic woe wrapped in a veil of tears :cry:

[Sugar Smack]

20. I know.

And to have been touched by it is awful. Some of us haven't been yet, not closely. And some have been overwhelmed by it.

I'm thinking about you, Cheeseball. Believe it.

[bridgit]

22. oh my darling you are here...

i've watched hubby start off slow today, a guy that hits it hard everyday without mercy every detail tripping over the slightest thing; he finally came round about noon, we concluded at 'happy hour' over pitchers (as in plural), kami's & nachos, and i asked him what i could do, and he said "nothing, just let it work itself out, baby..."...i don't know what to do, so i'm giving him space...please; i love you so ~

[Sugar Smack]

29. I know you trust your instincts. I know that you know the

value of silence at times, because although it's not satisfying to wonder what your husband's thinking, you're so in tune with him that you can work together to at least understand each others' reactions to this. To try and understand how the hell this could have happened is torture. There are things no one should understand.

Well, you know I love you for that. And so many other things.

[bridgit]

35. thank you dearest, that's a variation of something hubby mentioned...

today, and Betsy too..."It is all God's Will; All Of It!!! God must have needed such a bright spirit somewhere else, a better place"

:loveya: O8)

[Sugar Smack]

36. You-

:loveya: :hug: Just hang on. You're amazing and you're going to be the one who pulls your husband through this because you have the muscle right now.

[bridgit]

40. just recieved this via family...the obit of a young idealist...

By ******* *****
*******-***** reporter
A life of adventure and generosity that began in ****** ended on Sunday in the West African country of Mali when ****** ****** *****, 27, of ********* was killed in a boat accident. ***** was an ********* ***** University graduate and Peace Corps volunteer. He left for Mali in January 2005, full of anticipation.

"I can only hope to contain some of the excitement I feel," he wrote on his Web site, "now that I am finally following through with something that I have wanted to do for such a long time. I am an inspiration to myself."

After graduating from *** in June of 2004 with a degree in engineering, ***** went to work for a partnership of construction companies building the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

***** had a choice of assignments in the Peace Corps. He could have gone to the Caribbean immediately after graduation, but he chose to wait six months and go to Africa. "I want to know what it is like to live, and work, and eat, and smell, and sleep in a place that is outside of everything I have known so far," he wrote to the Peace Corps. It was typical of ***** to choose the unknown, says ****** *****, *****'s mother. "He was an explorer," ***** said. She thinks if he lived in the 1400s, "he'd say, 'I want to go and see if the world is flat.'"

In 2001, ***** took his bicycle to the Pacific Ocean and began a cross-country solo ride. Fifty-one days later he arrived at the Atlantic. He averaged 80 miles a day, camping along the way. He told his mother the scariest moment on the trip was in his tent in the middle of nowhere when he smelled a skunk investigating his campsite. "I knew if I got sprayed my trip was over," he said to her, because no one would allow him near them. He was more afraid of having to end his trip prematurely than of any robber or violent person he might run across.

***** worried, but ***** never seemed to. "He didn't live life like that," she said. "He didn't live in a box. He probably did in 27 years what most people would in 100." **** *****, one of *****'s teachers at ***, agreed.

"He was a unique guy," said *****, an assistant professor in construction management. "He was technically savvy and knew some computer programs better than any other student I've had before or since. But he wasn't a techie or a nerd. He was a people person." In 2004, ***** and five of his classmates won a national construction management competition in the field of roads, bridges and dams. The team put together a bid for a project and presented it to judges. The lead judge offered them all jobs on the spot.
"****** was the brain behind the presentation," ***** said.

He was also generous. When contestants were having computer problems, ***** fixed his own team's computer and then went from room to room helping other teams with theirs, too. "He was one of those kids that people remembered," ***** said.

In Mali, ***** worked in the village of Dontieribugu , population 500. Members of each of the major families in the village collaborated with him in building new wells, latrines and hand-washing stations. He also helped a group of 200 women begin a gardening project to raise their incomes and improve their families' nutrition. On Sunday, ***** and three of his Peace Corps colleagues set out for a day of fun, traveling in their homemade catamaran down the Niger River .

When they sighted rough water ahead, the young men decided to pull into a tributary and get some local expertise, according to Peace Corps press director ******* *****. The mast of their boat hit a low-hanging electrical power line. A witness on the riverbank saw a blue arc of electricity that seemed to blow ***** and his friend **** ***** into the water.

The other two men jumped out. Their injuries were not life-threatening. But ***** and *****, 24, were killed instantly.
***** was at home on Sunday morning when the call came. It was a woman from the Peace Corps, and she asked ***** if she was alone.
"I got the fear," ***** says.

"There's been an accident," she heard next. She waited for the words that would reassure her that her son was OK. In December, ***** was hit by a motorcycle in Mali. His leg was broken, but he came home for Christmas and healed. Then he went back to Africa.
This time it was different. ***** can't remember the exact words that followed, but she heard enough to know that her son was dead. She handed the phone to her husband, ***** ****, and then wandered the house crying.

"We hope it was like, snap! That quick," she said, "and ****** and **** didn't suffer."
A memorial service for ***** and **** was held Tuesday night in Mali. Their bodies were scheduled to be flown back to the United States .

A funeral service for ***** will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at ******-****** Funeral Home in **********. ***** is survived by his father, ***** ***** of ****** ; mother ****** ***** and stepfather ***** ***** of *********; two sisters, ***** ******* and ******* *****; and two brothers, ****** and ****** *****.

On one of his first days in Africa, ****** ***** wrote on his Web page:

"As I wrap it all up for today, I'm thinking of two things. One is just how long the next two years, two months, and three weeks is going to be. I have been here for one week and it feels longer than the past six months. Second, is just how hard this is going to be. "Even still, I would not wish to be anywhere else."


--
Sincerely,
***** *.


the family wishes no names or reference, Czarina...they are a sweet, but protective unit...love to you :-)

[Sugar Smack]

43. You've filled out some absolutely beautiful details, bridgie.

He sounds like he was a wonderful man, & not at all alarmed to speak what he felt. I loved his affinity for the unknown. And the fact that he had to be present at all times, especialy with things we'd consider innocuous; a skunk. A skunk that might impede his chances for living in a certain place.

I hate it about that low-hanging electrical line, but I won't say any more about it. That is more horrible than I could have imagined. I think that you're right to consider it a quick and fairly painless demise.

:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:

[bridgit]

44. his father was a master boats-man, my sense is that he was not at the helm

:hug:

[u4ic]

10. My condolences, bridgit

Very, very sad indeed. :hug:

[bridgit]

25. u4ic-honey, thank you so...

:hug:

[LaurenG]

11. I'm sorry for your loss Bridgit

my condolences to you and your family.:hug:

[bridgit]

26. thank you, OhioBlues, very much dear one...

:hug:

[wildhorses]

12. so sorry to read this, bridgit...my condolences to your family

:hug:

[bridgit]

27. wildhorses!!! my dearest wildhorses, i will quote you here sweet one...

"to die in the house of mirrors, and find no one there to close my eyes" that phrase has always stuck with me...i only hope i have remember it correctly :hug:

[wildhorses]

38. oh sweetie, when did I say that? I was paraphrasing an old

John Prine tune:

Often Is A Word I Seldom Use~John Prine

I know that youre sad
I know that youre lonely
You lie awake till way past when
I want you to know
That Im leaving you only
cause I might not get the chance again.

Im cold and Im tired
And I cant stop coughing
Long enough to tell you all of the news
Id like to tell you
That Ill see you more often
But often is a word I seldom use
Often is a word I seldom use.

Tell me, where did the weekend go?
Tell me, where did the weekend go?
Went like thunder, felt like snow.
Went like thunder, felt like snow.

You must think my lifes a circus
Watching me laughing
And slapping my thighs
"How'd ya like to die
In the house of mirrors
With nobody around to close your eyes."

Going down to the greyhound station
Going back home
And get whats mine
Got me a date
With the ten oclock special
Gonna be there at a quarter to nine.

Here he is at Telluride doing his wonderful "Angel From Montgomery"
(dear bridgit, may you find some measure of comfort and share with your husband:hug:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flYif9WrCho

[Sugar Smack]

39. Oh, God.

:cry: :hug: Those are devastating lyrics.

[bridgit]

41. John Prine, but of course, what perfection...

those words, sweetness, were the first i ever recall you as posting here at DU way back when...my reply...to your post, "divine poetry", and i have remembered them ever since :hug:

but then again...what-a-putz-me, i adore John Prine :hi:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

19. I'm so sorry.

It really sucks when people die, especially way before their time.

:hug:

[bridgit]

28. haruka-honey, do me a little ole favor would'ja doll...

mix me up a triple-something today, i don't give a shit what it is x(

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

31. How about...

a triple cuervo pomegranate margarita?

:beer:

[bridgit]

33. as long as it gets me 'spit faced drunker'...you got a deal...

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

30. I am so sorry, my dear bridgit.........

My deepest condolences on this terrible heart-wrenching loss for you and your whole family......

To lose one so very young and full of bright promise is horrifying.......

What can we do, but live our lives fully...as he would have done...

And all the while, recalling these words: That which is remembered, lives...

:grouphug: :loveya: :grouphug: :loveya: :grouphug:

[bridgit]

32. this young person did precisely that, CP, he will be remembered...

he has five (5) surviving siblings...thank you so for being here, Peg :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. You know I will always be here for you, sweetie.......

Always......:hug:

[redwitch]

37. That is a tragedy, I am so sorry for your loss.

n/t

[bridgit]

42. darlin we're feeling better, getting our heads around the holy parts...

:hug: