{MemORiAL DaY}

"Brethren, shall we not go on

in so great a cause?

Go forward and not backward.

Courage, brethren;

and on, on to the victory!..."

~D&C 128:22~

~James: Rugby 2006~

To our brave son: You were born with courage. It was a gift to you in this life. People wanted to be around you, I think, because you made them feel confident. Maybe they sensed that you were never afraid to stick up for them. When you were in the fourth grade, I went to see your sweet teacher Mrs. Moss, for a parent-teacher conference. She showed me to your desk, and it was moved to the front, paired with another, away from the rest of the class. At first I thought that you had raised some kind of ruckus, and had been forced to move your chair to an isolated spot. Then she told me that you were there on special assignment. Donald, a boy in your class with Down Syndrome, had taken a liking to you, and you to him. So she had encouraged you to be his special buddy. "Because", she told me, "If James is your friend... then everyone else is your friend too." In fact, she recommended to the other teachers that you two be kept together in 5th grade because Donald was just safer with you around.

After you died, we received a letter from a girl in one of your high school classes. She told of a day when, before class, a group of boys began bragging about all of the inappropriate things they had done with girls. You spoke up and said, "I would never talk that way about a girl". That was it... the talk ended. She said others had so much respect for you---that just your words could stop them.

It takes courage for us to visit your grave. To see a headstone there with your name on it. We have to be brave to face it. We think of your courage all the time. I wrote a letter to the search and rescue team, thanking them for risking their lives so that they could find you, and bring you back to us. I told them that you would have thought they were heroes. That given the chance, you would have done the same for them. In a heartbeat. I thought they should know that.

Your rugby coach told me, "I told James, You are too skinny to lead the charge! Don't be the first one off the line!" But you always were. And are still. I think of you in Heaven with your Grandpa Hansen. You two must be a force of nature. We love you. You are so much to miss. To live without. Our fearless son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, friend. Our hero. Love, Mom