I have lost a friend and his name is Jeremy Cole.
There are so many things to say about him... but what first comes to mind is his smile :)
his smile affected so many people, he could create happiness within you instantly. His eyes would sparkle as soon as his lips creased up.
The joy that came through his eyes, melted hearts...melted my heart.
I first met Jeremy working at the Green Top Market. A small Mom and Pop store in Morristown corners in Vermont. He did almost every job there was there to do there.
As a fellow employee he was a joy to work with, always smiling, always working. He was quiet and shy but extremely funny, in a crazy way.
I remember him coming into the store as a customer to talk to me about his idea about BBQ burritos. He wasn't kidding.... from then on every time I see BBQ sauce, I think of Jeremy. No i have not tried BBQ burritos, and I am not sure he has, I will have to ask his fiancé Katy. Honestly I think it is a gross idea, but that was just it with Jeremy, he was convincing, he was passionate about things he cared about. I thought about making the burritos many times.
His world was Jasper, his love was Katy, he was an amazing dancer... and I am not talking about grooving around Saturday night to a DJ at a bar, he was a ballroom dancer. He was passionate about TKD and from what I here he was pretty good at that also. He was the sweetest to his brother Anthony, I saw this with my own eyes.
When people saw Jeremy they thought of happiness and love and kindness.
But not many of us knew everything about his life and Katy lived with 100% of what made Jeremy and some of it wasn't pretty. As with all of us there are parts to our lives we keep private, struggles we endure silently or only with close loved ones. Days, or weeks when the world does not make sense. These struggles are real and painful.
When things get to be to much to handle, sometimes we do not know where to turn, this is the ultimate struggle.
We feel alone, even when we are surrounded by people, surrounded by people who love us...but we can not seem to see them.
Jeremy was and IS loved by so many people, he leaves behind a family, a mother, a father, a brother, a fiancé, and a very young son.
the pain that not only these people, but the entire community feels now is tremendous. I am not sure that tremendous even describes the size of this pain. So many questions that we wish we could ask, so many answers we wish we could hear.
the pain will fade with time........... but the love we all have for jeremy will remain, it has to we are all responsible to help jasper remember this beautiful father. To help Katy raise this amazing little boy, to share our memories with both of them, so they can keep going. To hug Jeremy's parents and continue to remind them that things will get better. To reminded ourselves that people need people everyday, today and tomorrow, and not only in the bad times.... we need to remember to take the time out of our day to remind our loved ones exactly how much they mean to us, because the truth is you may not get another chance.
Jeremy was/is a beautiful sole that struggled with things that some of us will never understand, but if i could guess what Jeremy would want now, is that everyone that he has touched to be happy and to find the goodness in your day. To find someway to love one another even with our differences.
Jeremy sure made me smile, and if i can make someone else feel that happy, maybe then they can make another person smile, and then another, and then another..............
Jeremy would want it that way! he would want Jasper smiling.
