A Tribute to A Fallen Hero:

All of you reading know and love and terribly miss our friend Derrick. So this blog will be a tribute to him.

For those of you who are not aware of who Derrick is, I will tell you. Derrick Lareva is a good friend of mine that, in the process of traveling home for Christmas break, was in a serious car accident. I am glad to say that though he is not fully recovered, Derrick is alive and fighting! From what I'm gathering, all his memories are intact and he is starting to try to speak. He has a letter board that he uses mostly to communicate, but is working on talking. Dori tells me that his personality is back to his old self... for those of you who know, we can laugh until we mess our pants, and for those who don't... tough. Anyway, I guess during one of his speech of physical therapy appointments, he said "I'm a retard" (he was joking because his voice sounded like it)

Derrick lived when all odds were against him. I strongly believe that he is alive today because of the weeks and months of constant petition in prayer. God has an awesome plant for Derrick's life.

Derrick, our fallen and recovering brother, we miss you. More than words can express right now, I say that I miss you too. Keep up the fighting! I know that you'll be back someday and when you are, remind me to tell you how much your friendship has meant to me.

For all of us, this is a lesson. Don't wait until tomorrow to tell someone how much you appreciate them, because they might not have tomorrow. On second thought, neither might you.


(On a side note in response to an earlier blog: Day 3 of "Damien's quest to understand love" has passed and it seems that every day I'm learning something new. The first two days were things that jumped out of the scriptures at me and the other, a dear [by dear I attach no string etc., that is for you who may take this term of endearment the wrong way] friend showed me...thanks for being the messenger Liz)