Quote found on Jared's phone nicely sums up his attitude towards college and work - from Gladiator movie :-)
Maximus: You don't find it hard to do your duty?
Cicero: Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to.
Fitting quote we picked (not Jared) from one of Jared's favorite movies, "Lucky Number Slevin". It's a bit dark so it doesn't represent Jared, just our mood on the situation.
The Rabbi Gangster: The unlucky are nothing more than a frame of reference for the lucky, Mister Fisher. You are unlucky, so I may know that I am not. Unfortunately the lucky never realize they are lucky until it's too late.
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Turning grief into joy sounds good as long as one is not grieving. For someone who is mourning over the loss of a child, it is extremely difficult to be satisfied with comforting words like, “God must have wanted another angel.”
"... after the early bursts of tears, after the praises have been spoken, and the good days remembered, and the lament cried, and the grave closed, there is no company in grief. It is a burden borne alone.” Ursula K. Le Guin
"Death of a child is the ultimate parental sorrow. It is a wound that never heals, a void that lasts forever, and it brings grief for which there is no comfort. Yet for parents, life must continue even when living in the shock wave of death becomes a forced march".
Happiness is over rated. It doesn't matter anyway because happiness cannot exist anymore because it is relative to what was and my family will never be complete without Jared. I will never know that happiness again.
Sometimes even to live in an act of courage. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Donations For Jared McPeak Memorial Scholarship Fund
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to a scholarship fund in Jared's name at Texas A&M Maritime Academy. Donations can be made online at https://www.aggienetwork.com/give/memorialgiving/ or be sent by mail using a paper form that you can print from https://www.aggienetwork.com/media/guides/giving/memorial gift.pdf.
Note: The EIN number for charitable contributions at Texas A&M for Jared is 74-0490856. This is important to have for Employer / Company match.
I am currently behind in sending out our thank you notes to people...
Thank you
Thank you for the donations that have been made in Jared's name for his scholarship fund. We are touched by the number of people that also cherished Jared's short life.
We have received well over half of the $25,000 needed to set up an Endowed Memorial in Jared's name. The school uses the principal from the pooled funds so the scholarship can be a self-sustaining annual award to a deserving future scholar.
Three years, about average of nineteen opens a day. Many holes in a lot of hearts.
Our family is greatful to belong the the amazing McPeak Family.
I know that Jessica, Jacob, and Cole loved playing with their
2nd cousins. We are thankful for the time that we were able to
know Jared. He was kind and always smiling. His memory lives
on. Thank you for sharing your stories. We cannot know your pain,
if we have not experienced it. Our thoughts and prayers are continually
with your family. May God hold you, guide you, bless you, and comfort you.
Jared was 190 lbs in the above picture. In August we sent him for his sophmore year of college to Texas A&M, where he gained 30 lbs in two months. His new dorm friends talked about him eating 3 trays of food in one sitting. This was crazy behavior for Jared because his freshman year of college I still sent Ensure protein shakes with him for his dorm to make sure he ate enough food. Then for his summer job at Dion's, he rarely ate at work, so I bought protein shakes for him to take.
There was one time when Jared called me from Texas to have me explain how to use the dorm laundry machines because he thought he accidently used the wrong setting and shrunk his pants. I believed him because no one who knew Jared would have believed that he gained so much weight that he was having trouble with his pants fitting. If his story had a happy ending, I definately would have picked on him for that.
Jared was always thin so when we did a video chat with him and saw his face, we thought the puffy face was a symptom and wanted him to go see the doctor right away. We also had him check his body for rashes or anything unusual, he also had marks on his thighs which we found out later were stretch marks because of the rapid weight gain.
