And then there was Luke….

I met Luke in May 2008, the first day I worked at Eden Park. He greeted me with a “hiiiiiii” and a head nod to other staff saying “Tippy.” I later found out Tippy was an affectionate term for both girls and cats. Luke quickly became family to me! When you are with a lovable, funny young man for 40 or more hours a week he kind of becomes part of your heart, how could he not! I think Luke was a lot of people’s “boy!” Luke had a happy heart and easily laughed at all bodily functions or sounds that sounded like farting, burping, sneezing, coughing and the like! As his staff family, we used to joke that we could never get a job elsewhere because we wouldn’t know how to act. After all, the above-mentioned sounds were not only accepted but promoted!!! Luke wouldn’t just laugh at these sounds he would laugh so hard that tears would spill from his eyes and he couldn’t breathe which would make him laugh that much more!!!! Luke loved my cell phone I had put music on it for him and he came to expect to hear his favorite Bar bar bar bar Barbra, Ann Bar bar bar bar Barbara Ann from it! Luke wasn’t at all um quiet, which I could totally relate to because well I tend not to be that quiet either!!!! So there may have been a lot of high pitched WOOOOOS & WOO-HOOS going on when Luke and I spent 8 hrs together. Luke made work a blessing! He brought joy and fun into the toughest of days. I was one of the staff with him the day he had his heart attack. My heart still aches from the loss. Even now writing this I’m crying thinking of all the joy he brought to us who knew him and loved him and all the joy we lost the day Luke passed. I do not grieve as those who have no hope I know he’s better off happy and at peace. I’m just left behind and miss him a lot. I look at a picture of him and I just want to read him one more bedtime story, sing him one more song, and make one more rude noise to hear his laugh. Alas not on this earth but someday, someday we will be together again in a place where there are no more tears and no more sorrow and place where joy and peace will reign.
I love you Luke and miss you a lot!!! You were one of God’s joy bearers here on earth. I know your almost 20yrs on this earth brought countless blessing to everyone you met. He and Brad were the best of buds he misses him a lot too. This is a picture of the two fine gentlemen together.
RIP Luke XO
December 17, 1989 – September 9, 2009
(Thanks to Mom Maryann for letting me blog about her boy love you too).