A couple of months prior, we had roomed together for a week in St. Louis, MO as we always had the three years prior. When you spend a whole week with someone- 24/7, you really know them. That year was really cool as we also roomed with four other christians. One night we were sharing how God has worked in our lives, answered prayers, etc. Nicole didn't have much to say, but that she knew God loved her.
So after this terrible accident, she found the Lord. She and her husband Jon, became members of a Lutheran church in Bark River and are very involved. Nic is even on the church board.
Nic and Jon are the type of people that are always there when there's a problem. They always seem to have this sense of being right there when you need a friend the most. Two years ago, when Paul was layed off from work, she and I started walking at the mall. I had explained how Paul just got layed off, our dryer broke, and Tayton was so sick at that time. She said, well, I have a dryer you guys can just have. We are still using that dryer and what a blessing it was with three kids!
A year later, while starting our addition, Nic said, Do you guys need any help, we'd love to help anyway that we can. Jon, not being all that house handy said he could help with drywall. But do you know that he actually called here a few times to see if Paul was ready to start on the drywall yet. So willing to help. And that is just what he did. He spent a weekend here helping Paul hang all of our drywall.
Nic and Jon invited us for dinner several times and over a few time for game nights with some other friends of theirs. We always have a great time with them, their laughter is infectious. They are truely great friends. I ran into them both a few times over the summer, but we'd not been over in quite a while. Life took it's course with busyness, but I ran into them two weeks ago at Payless buying their almost three year old daughter her first ballet shoes. We talked and laughed, everything seemed fine.
Paul came home Tuesday and said that he heard from a coworker that Jon was missing. MISSING? How does that happen? I thought immediately that someone must have taken him against his will. No word all week until yesterday. Nicole's sister called me and told me that they found Jon in the woods and that he had taken his life. I was shocked, angry, sad, devastated. He had left Nicole a note in the truck explaining that he just couldn't take care of them anymore and that Chloe could have a better dad. He had lost his job as a nurse at local mental health clinic in town after a mental patient accused him of assulting her. Anyone that knew Jon, knows that he wouldn't do anything like that to anyone. He had been out of work for four months and was supposed to start at a hospital in Chicago Monday when he was told that they couldn't hire him because of this smudge to his record.
A large group of their friends,Nicole, and I all met last night. She's a wreck, we're all in a state of disbelief that he would leave them like this. It made me fully aware that guys really do feel that if they are not providing or able to provide for their family, how much of a blow that is. I think that especially our husbands of their stay home wives really feel that pressure even moreso. I've seen Paul pretty down myself when he's low on hours. It's their instinct to PROVIDE and if they aren't able to do that, they feel like they are nothing. So like Nicole said last night, I wouldn't have cared if we lived in a cardboard box, as long as we had him with us, we'd be okay. The funeral for Jon is Monday, he'll be remembered for his love of life, his love and devotion to his family and his friends. I'm blessed to have known him and have had my life touched by him.
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