Today has been a bitter-sweet day. A year ago today Gunnar passed away unexpectedly, Gunnar Strum was my little sister's best friend. We have known the Strum family for many years and they are no stranger to tragedy. We became close to the Strums when Gunnar's little brother, Hayden, was diagnosed with cancer. We rejoiced with the Strum's when Hayden's cancer went into remission and we mourned with them when little Hayden died of a brain tumor ten years ago, just before his 7th birthday. I remember being so amazed by Gunnar’s strength and maturity at such a young age. I remember Gunnar inventing games to play with Hayden and he was always so careful with his already fragile little brother. I remember their mom, Kathleen, telling us about Gunnar taking placebo shots in front of Hayden to make Hayden less fearful of needles. I remember how strong their mom Kathleen was to be able to speak with such a clear voice and with such pride about her son at Hayden's memorial service. I remember at Hayden’s memorial nine year old Gunnar got on stage and closed his page of notes and gave a beautiful, moving speech from the heart.
Claire and Gunnar were friends for so many years and I loved how he was such loyal friend to her. Most summer days I would come home and see G's big, black, suped-up truck in the driveway... and if he wasn't there yet you knew he was coming way before you saw him, his sound system was that LOUD. Gunnar was fearless and had been on the motocross circut and had a future in the sport until some huge crashes and injuries sidelined him. Quoting his mom, Kathleen, “At 16 he made the decision to put his energy elsewhere, a decision that demonstrated a level of maturity of which many grown men are incapable.” G had such an amazing sense of self and always seemed so sure of himself, I guess it was because of all he had experienced in his young life. Claire was there for G when his parents went through a hard divorce and when our family started going through the same devastation of divorce Gunnar was always there for Claire, in the middle of the night, whenever, wherever... always...
As we pulled up to the church for Gunnar’s memorial service we saw G's big, shiny black truck parked out in front with his motorcycle in the back. Gunnar's memorial service was beautiful and was just how he would of liked it. A heavy metal version of "Amazing Grace" was played by friends of their family, a beautiful slideshow played that was accompanied by LOUD rock music {which Gunnar would have LOVED}, Gunnar's wakeboard, a skimboard and helmets graced the stage along with gorgeous flowers. And Kathleen spoke again with a clear voice and beamed with pride for Gunnar. Which of course brought back memories of Hayden’s memorial service as it was in the same church and even though that day was hard as Kathleen put it, “the boys were reunited together in heaven.” And that through all of the pain brought comfort.
Today we went to the beach where Gunnar died. I wish that I would have gotten to know him better, I wish that he would have been more than Claire’s friend to me but, I was glad to be there for Claire with my mom and brother.
3 comments:
WOW! What an awesome post but probably Sooooooooooooooo hard to write! A true inspiration!
Wow, this post really touched my heart. Even though I don't know you or anyone mentioned, thank you for sharing and allowing Gunnar's life to go on through your kind words.
What a great memorial Britt. Thanks for reminding us to REMEMBER.
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