Im always long winded, so bear with me.....
I request your prayers as I have to sing at my cousins funeral/memorial service tommorow. You can stop right here & just lift me up in prayer that I am a blessing & comfort to the family, & do well as far as not break down & make myself into a blubbering idiot, or if you would like to know the story, read on.
Mike & I grew up as brothers early in life, our families lives together, we are close in age. Over the years, we went our seperate ways, but when we would reunite (we lived within 40 miles of each other our entire lives), it would seem like no time had passed. We just picked up were we left off. After coming back to the Lord recently, i was reading about how Jonathan & David had plans, Jonathan knew David was the next king, & they intended on taking care of business together. Mike & I were like that, we always had plans, from the early days of building tree houses to bidding work together, & discussing buying rental property. We didnt always follow through with our plans, but there was never a lack of planning on our parts!!
So in the summer of 2004, Mike shows up at my house one morning around 630, says get the coffe on, we need to talk. I hadnt really seen him in 6 or 7 years, but that wasnt an issue, if it was time to talk it was time to talk, we had that connection. He was working on a construction job in my town, had his camper set up atthe local lake, & we were going to spend some time together, as well as make big plans we probably would never follow through with.
It was a good summer, but towards the end Mike started seeming a little edgey, i was afraid he was messing with drugs again, a problem that had haunted him before. Me, not seeking the Lord, just "wished" the best for him & tried to hang with him as much as possible. In the fall, he wanted me to buy a house with him, but I knew he was just needing money, & even though I told him I would stop & look at the house I knew I wouldnt, as I could sense this wasnt going to be a good partnership atthis time.
The last time I saw him was in late October, when he bought me the ugliest hat I ever saw, we were sitting in a biker bar drinking a few, then went to his house & ordered pizza...his wife wasnt happy with us fools & we both seemed to enjoy the frustration she had with us.
He was officially listed as missing in November 6, 2004. He had told me about some connections that he had in the "old days"; I have a good memory, so along with his brother we started investigating, along with providing information to the local sherriff. His brother got deep enough into this investigation, that he had a few threats on him. We were pretty sure that he was probably murdered in a drug deaal gone bad, but I have always had hope.
This led me into a long deppresion state along with the fact my mother was dying (passed in July 2005). Also atthis point in life, I had started playing music again, had built a recording studio, & was writing & recording for if nothing else, to give myself some peace & alone time.
I wrote a song called "Michael & Me", eventually relased it on my first album, & could only hope someday he heard it & returned home, knowing that he was loved. The funny thing is, I cut the vocal track for this song over 30 times, I hated every cut & Im not really what you would call a "smooth" singer anyway, but I finally decided to use the cut that I recorded on his birthday in the summer of 2006. As I look back, it was the worse cut I had, LOL.
So anyhow, they found some remains in April of 2008, with a positive ID coming in 4-27-09. The case is still open by the way.
So now, at the request of his mother, Im doing the song at his memorial service; it didnt turn out the way I wanted, but pretty much how I expected. His mother, father & siblings have closure. For me, its been easy to just put it in the back of my mind & not deal with it everyday, so everytime something pops up, its as fresh as 2004. I've learned alot about grief since then, I'm far from depressed, but yet I'm sad.
In His Love,
John
I request your prayers as I have to sing at my cousins funeral/memorial service tommorow. You can stop right here & just lift me up in prayer that I am a blessing & comfort to the family, & do well as far as not break down & make myself into a blubbering idiot, or if you would like to know the story, read on.
Mike & I grew up as brothers early in life, our families lives together, we are close in age. Over the years, we went our seperate ways, but when we would reunite (we lived within 40 miles of each other our entire lives), it would seem like no time had passed. We just picked up were we left off. After coming back to the Lord recently, i was reading about how Jonathan & David had plans, Jonathan knew David was the next king, & they intended on taking care of business together. Mike & I were like that, we always had plans, from the early days of building tree houses to bidding work together, & discussing buying rental property. We didnt always follow through with our plans, but there was never a lack of planning on our parts!!
So in the summer of 2004, Mike shows up at my house one morning around 630, says get the coffe on, we need to talk. I hadnt really seen him in 6 or 7 years, but that wasnt an issue, if it was time to talk it was time to talk, we had that connection. He was working on a construction job in my town, had his camper set up atthe local lake, & we were going to spend some time together, as well as make big plans we probably would never follow through with.
It was a good summer, but towards the end Mike started seeming a little edgey, i was afraid he was messing with drugs again, a problem that had haunted him before. Me, not seeking the Lord, just "wished" the best for him & tried to hang with him as much as possible. In the fall, he wanted me to buy a house with him, but I knew he was just needing money, & even though I told him I would stop & look at the house I knew I wouldnt, as I could sense this wasnt going to be a good partnership atthis time.
The last time I saw him was in late October, when he bought me the ugliest hat I ever saw, we were sitting in a biker bar drinking a few, then went to his house & ordered pizza...his wife wasnt happy with us fools & we both seemed to enjoy the frustration she had with us.
He was officially listed as missing in November 6, 2004. He had told me about some connections that he had in the "old days"; I have a good memory, so along with his brother we started investigating, along with providing information to the local sherriff. His brother got deep enough into this investigation, that he had a few threats on him. We were pretty sure that he was probably murdered in a drug deaal gone bad, but I have always had hope.
This led me into a long deppresion state along with the fact my mother was dying (passed in July 2005). Also atthis point in life, I had started playing music again, had built a recording studio, & was writing & recording for if nothing else, to give myself some peace & alone time.
I wrote a song called "Michael & Me", eventually relased it on my first album, & could only hope someday he heard it & returned home, knowing that he was loved. The funny thing is, I cut the vocal track for this song over 30 times, I hated every cut & Im not really what you would call a "smooth" singer anyway, but I finally decided to use the cut that I recorded on his birthday in the summer of 2006. As I look back, it was the worse cut I had, LOL.
So anyhow, they found some remains in April of 2008, with a positive ID coming in 4-27-09. The case is still open by the way.
So now, at the request of his mother, Im doing the song at his memorial service; it didnt turn out the way I wanted, but pretty much how I expected. His mother, father & siblings have closure. For me, its been easy to just put it in the back of my mind & not deal with it everyday, so everytime something pops up, its as fresh as 2004. I've learned alot about grief since then, I'm far from depressed, but yet I'm sad.
In His Love,
John
