Not soon forgotten

Well today was my cousin Derek's funeral. It was the most spiritual, sweet, and draining day I've had for a while. He is not one to be soon forgotten, his memory will live on forever in our family. See if you knew Derek he's the kind of kid that could make any situation humorous. This funeral probably had more laugher than any other I know of. Since Derek was such a funny kid all his family had to tell were funny stories. We were laughing and crying all at the same time, it was an emotionally draining day. See I know that Derek had a mission to fulfill, he's where he is needed most so it makes it ok. He was taken from this earth at the young age of 21, because there are other plans in store for him. Since this is a day of rememberance and celebration of the life of Derek Lowry I want to dedicate this blog to him and remember some of the things about his life and some stories that were shared today.
First off I remember his brother Jordan talk about how he liked to name their pets weird names, and had a cat named Steve. He even tried to change one of their siblings pet's names to Justin, and also had a dog named Mason. Well he had a love for pets and when he and his brother found a chipmunk that was hurt he caught it, went into Wendy's to get a bag for it, then went to the petstore and bought a cage and food. Jordan noted how he even gave it a bath.
Well there were a few things during the course of this service that made me cry. One was his brother Andy. When he spoke about how he was leaving on his mission and sweet little Derek (12 at the time) started bawling, but didn't want anyone to know he was crying. He said when he left Derek jumped up on a chair and yelled across the whole room, "I love you Andy!" Andy then says, "Now it's my turn to say, I love you Derek!" This touched me because they know he's now serving his mission.
It also touched me just the siblings love for their brother. The way they showed it without extreme grief, although they were all hurting. It was the sweetest and most touching thing to see the way they stood over his casket last night at the viewing. The way his sister Jena ran her fingers through his hair like way to go brother you're finally there although we'll miss you so much. And to see the tears of love. It nearly broke my heart, but after hearing them all speak and seeing how strong they were it just made me think, yea way to go Derek go serve your mission we'll all meet you there shortly.




*Derek is the blonde one, the only blonde son. I put this picture up because I love the bond he had with his siblings, and I think it's the cutest picture I've ever seen.