Precious Memories

 

  “Can Jazz and I go see a movie after school?” Roderick texted me one day.

   “If Tyler and Angeline want to see it too you guys can come too” he added.

   I checked into it and bought tickets for all of us then texted Roderick that we’d all go together.

   “I really wanted this to be only Jazz and I” he texted me.

   “You said we could all go.”

   “I only did that to be nice.”

   “You shouldn’t have said that if you didn’t mean it.”

   I told him Jazz and him were welcome to sit by themselves somewhere and we wouldn’t bother them but that I had already bought tickets so we would go too. 

   Before school was over for the day he texted me saying, “mom, family is important too, we can all go together.”  Roderick was always so willing to apologize especially to the people he cared about.

   Memories are so precious now that that is all we have.  Three weeks ago I went through Roderick’s room, up until then I had left it the way it was.  I replaced the carpet and got it ready so Tyler could use it as his computer room.  I didn’t find it that hard at the time but the following two weeks were hard ones, it seemed tears were on the surface all the time.  Then on Monday it seemed like the heaviness lifted all of a sudden.  I had days that were hard and days that were easier but to actually feel the heaviness lift was something I hadn’t experienced before.  God works in unexpected ways. Now I really enjoy going into the family room downstairs where I'm surrounded by so many momentums that bring back memories.

  We had some display cabinets in the Family Room downstairs where Roderick spent so much of his time. We hung the framed Jersey up on one wall on the other wall I hung his framed medals and ribbons and I had a posture printed to go in between.  In the display cabinet I put his collection of knives on one shelf, his trophies on another his personal belongings like wristwatch, wallet, etc. on another and so forth.  I'm glad I did that even if it was painful.

Words on Posture: Roderick was always a strong competitor, whether it was track and field, winning ribbons: hockey, winning medals or back yard wrestling matches, he would always fight hard and give it his best shot until the very end.  You won the race buddy, you did well, I'll meet you at the finish line when I get there.  -Stanton Rempel 

 I wanted to write about memories this week so I went through a lot of memories that his friends shared and I really enjoyed it.  There are so many great memories I can’t share nearly all of them but I will share some of them here and hopefully I can share more later on.

Friends Remember

I remember whenever he got his quad stuck and I was with him he would always make me go off of it and push it out of the mud.  I also remember he got the truck stuck in a ditch at the farm and also made me push it but he was such a great guy and always knew how to make me smile.  He honestly made me so happy and always showed how he cared even if it meant punching me or making fun of me. 

Roderick was the most funniest, craziest and most adventurous guy I have ever met.  Once he grabbed my arm and almost pushed me near the fire, he grabbed me back so I wouldn’t fall and scared me so bad.

He was always eating food when I was around him, every time I would be hungry he would offer me a sandwich or a juice box.  Even though he always punched and pushed me and annoyed me at the end of the day he always helped me with my problems and never pushed me away.

He taught me how to be confidant in who I am.  I remember telling my mom I was inviting a friend over and they expected him to be a girl and when he walked in my mom whispered to me "is that a girl?" Thanks for reminding me I was beautiful when no one else was.

I remember when I first came to MBCI the first person I talked to was Rod.  He instantly accepted me into his group of friends.  Later that week he threw me in the bushes for no reason.  We frequently had all out wrestling matches, the last one was just a week before him leaving, that was the last time we had a lot of fun together.

Last year at service day the Chaplin commissioned Roderick and me to find this smell and promised us $5.00.  After searching for an hour and a half we determined it was the garbage.  We took out the garbage and the guy gave us two halves of a five-dollar bill.

You and a friend were shooting bb guns and I told you not to shoot me but you did anyway and the next day at school I had a whole  bunch of welts on my hand where you shot me.  I will never forget you, you were so amazing.

Sup Rod.  It’s you spare buddy. Man it was so awesome having you in my spare.  I wouldn’t have asked for anyone besides you.  We did so many dope things during our spare.  From climbing bridges to skateboarding to trying to make fish nets out of things we found by the riverbank.  From the day of our first spare I would look forward to chilling with you cause I knew we would do something exciting no matter what the situation was. 

At Red Rock some friends and I were in a paddle boat and got stuck in some seaweed.  We weren’t able to get out without getting wet so you volunteered to get us out.  When you untangled our boat from the weeds and got out of the water you had bad scars all over.  You never let me forget that day and what you went through to get us out.

I remember when we were in gym and I was standing on the ledge by the workout room and you came up behind me and like pushed me but held onto me so I didn’t fall and after you said “I just saved you life!"  I remember the funny faces you would make randomly at me.