My boy, Garrett was always larger than this life, from the time he was growing in my belly until the time he left this earth.  A few months before Garrett was born, I ended up in the emergency room because Garrett was already so big that i was having trouble breathing.  There was nothing they could do!  All I heard through my entire pregnancy was....”your going to have a BIG baby!”  So needless to say, I was a little petrifide. Garrett was born March 31, 1995 after I had been in labor for 16 hours.  The doctor tried everything to enable me to have a natural birth, even attempting to suction Garrett out and using forceps to pull him out,but my 5’1 frame was not built to deliver him, so I had an emergency C-section a little after midnight.  Garrett weighed 8 lbs, 13 oz and was 23 inches long!  All of the newborn outfits and diapers that were bought were   already too little for him and he wore a size 2 shoe the day he was born!  I was working full time and going to school when I had Garrett but I really wanted to take as long of a maternity leave with him as possible.  I remember he and I would take daily 2-3 hour naps with him laying on my chest, we slept SO good like that.  I remember how hard it was to go back to work and school, leaving him.  As Garrett grew up he was very active to say the least.  He always loved being outside.  He would get home from school and go immediately outside to play and visit neighbors.  He never knew a stranger that’s for sure.  Garrett grew up hanging out with his papa Albert, hunting, fishing, working as a logger-learning parts of the business and running equipment.  They also worked on cars and trucks together.  Papa Albert helped Garrett buy and fix up his first Ford truck, with a lift kit, new tires and more!  Garrett loved to stay at my mom and dad’s house on the weekends hanging out with dad and eating mama Brenda’s home cooking.  Garrett’s main passion most of his life was definitely fishing and being with friends and family.  If you check into our house on Facebook, it will show up as Garrett’s Lake! and we bought the house we live in because of the big lake behind it so that Garrett could fish whenever he wanted to.  Garrett was very driven and knew what he wanted to do with his life and got a job at S&S Machine Shop right out of high school.  He started as a general laborer and after only working there a year he came home and told me that he was getting promoted to a welding position.  I hope I never forget how proud he was and the big smile he had on his face, telling me about it.  He was sitting at the bar in our kitchen in the chair he always sat in andthe one that I often look at now and tell him how much I miss him.  I would make him breakfast every morning before he went to work and that is when we would mostly talk about his work, friends and I would tell him that I loved him so much and was so proud of him.  Garrett was such a special boy and my love for him continues everyday.  My love for him now goes to Heaven and back.  Another example of Garrett’s determination is when he wanted to buy this HUGE black F250 Ford truck on 47 inch tires.  Garrett asked me to cosign for this truck and since I felt that I knew best for him and felt that he didn’t need a truck that big, I told him no.  Garrett said, “ok, I will get it on my own.” He wasn’t mad, just determined to show me that he could do it.  I honestly didn’t think that a bank would give an 18 year old with a brand new job, just out of high school, a loan for a truck but I was wrong lol.  Garrett called me and said, “Mom, guess what.....I got the loan.”  What else could I say but, “Wow, Garrett, Congratulations Babe, I am so proud of you!”  And honestly, I really was!  Garrett would be very surprised to know that I still have his truck, love to drive it and will never sell it.  Garrett was very calm and I rarely seen him mad or heard him talk negatively about anyone, something I look back on now and am in awe of his amazing personality.  Garrett was a talented artist who could just sit and free hand draw anything he wanted beautifully.  He would say, “I’m not that good, mom” he was very modest of his God given talent. I have all of his original drawings framed in his room.  So, as you can see Garrett was so very special in so many ways and we miss him with every fiber of our being and he was always larger than this life to me. Garrett grew up in church, knew Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and because of that and because of God’s Grace and Mercy, my prayer and hope is that I will be with him again someday where there will be no more death, no crying or pain but until then, he is loved and missed more than any words can ever describe.