Sunday, June 21, 2009

9 Long Years

I want to start this post by wishing my dad and husband a Happy Father's Day!! I love you both and I hope you have a great day today!

The real reason for this post though, is to re-introduce you all to my brother. I have only spoke of him once since I started blogging. It was here, when I was wishing him a Happy 26th Birthday! I still can't believe he would be that old.

9 years ago today, my little brother passed away in a car accident. WOW!! 9 years?!?! It definitely doesn't seem that long ago. I can remember everything like it was yesterday.

He and some of his friends were heading home from the lake, and the boy that was driving, fell asleep at the wheel. No, there was no alcohol involved. That's normally the first thing people think when I say that. All 3 of the other boys were asleep, so I guess he was having a hard time staying awake.

From what we can gather, when he woke up and realized he was heading off the road, he tried to correct the car, but did it too quickly. The car ended up flipping several times, throwing out the passengers, and rolling over my brother. The only positive thing I can say about the whole matter, is that we know Jeff didn't suffer.

The driver and my brother's best friend walked away with only a few scratches and bruises. The other passenger injured one of his legs and had to have skin graphs done on one of his ears. They all 3 survived the accident though, with minimal injuries.

I know Jeff is with the Lord now and is living the perfect life, but I still miss him like crazy! I know he would have been an amazing uncle to Parker and Peyton and they would have loved him SO much!

Jeff was an awesome person and was loved by almost everyone he ever met. He was definitely the class clown and got in trouble a lot in school, but it wasn't for being the "bad" kid. It was because he couldn't keep his mouth shut!

I have never seen a funeral more packed in my life. There were SO many people there! It was great to be surrounded by so many people who loved my precious brother, on such an awful day.
Sorry to be such a downer, but I really wanted everyone to know about one of the most important people in my life, that never gets talked about on my blog.

I also wanted to share some pictures with you. All of the pictures of us growing up are at my parent's house, so hopefully I will remember to get some and I can include them on the post for what would have been his 27th birthday. I have many months to do this, so I'm sure I can remember!

This is probably my MOST favorite picture of my brother! It just shows his goof-ball side and that's what I will always remember the most about him. I scanned it in the frame that it sits on a shelf in my living room. I couldn't believe I found such an awesome frame to put it in! This was taken the weekend he died.

This was taken at a wedding in 1997 or 1998. It isn't a good picture of either one of us, but I love it, because it makes me laugh! I can vividly remember posing for the picture and neither one of us wanted to take it. My Mimi made us pose and we were laughing hysterically after she took the picture. It was Jeff's idea to pretend he was reading the book.
This was taken in 1997 I think. We were leaving my Mimi's house in Houston to head back home after church, and she had us pose for a picture before we left. It's crazy how short Jeff is in this picture. He was over 6 foot when he died. He had a HUGE growth spurt just a few months before the accident.


This is his headstone. He was very big into drama and starred in several of the high school plays. He was also a movie junkie. He had every movie ever made it seemed, and could recite some of them word for word. That's why there are drama faces and a movie reel on the headstone.
This is what his plot used to look like at all times before the cemetery changed the rules. Now we can only have a couple of things out there.
The back of the headstone
The family bench. You can't tell because of the lighting, but it also has Mullin etched in the sides of it.
This is a cross that used to be at the site of the accident.
This is a tree that Waxahachie High School planted in memoriam of Jeff.
This is the stone that sets in front of the tree.

4 comments:

Michelle said...

I can't believe it has been 9 years! I must say during the short amount of time I knew Jeff, he always made me laugh...even when it involved a funny remark about you! He, He! You guys are in my thoughts today.

Alicia {Murry Mayhem} said...

Beautiful post, beautiful memories.

Jenny Seymore said...

OMG Heather, you just made me sit here and cry. I was just thinking about Jeff for some reason the other day. I was remembering all the early mornings when he come in to wake you up to drive him to school and you wouldn't wake up...SO...I would drive him on my way home to change for class! He loved you!

Andrea said...

I'm really glad you decided to post about Jeff. I think he's a big part of the person you are today. I love the pictures!