Sad News

Yesterday I was given some really sad news.

When I was a young doula, very new, I met Jared and Summer. They were my second doula clients to serve. They were 15 and 16ish when they gave birth to their first child. Summer and Jared were so young, dear, and sweet. I enjoyed our meetings and they worked very hard for the birth they knew they could have. They had so much stacked against them as young parents.

It was a pleasure to serve them when I was so new to serving mama's and daddy's.

They had a natural, epidural free, simple birth in a small Arkansas hospital. Jared, his Sister in law Amanda, and myself loved on Summer and carried her through the waves of labor that rushed through her young body. And we rejoiced when that little baby was born.

I witnessed two very young people bringing in new life that night long ago.

Jared passed away yesterday. His funeral is tomorrow.

I am so very sad.

He and Summer did not make it as a couple. They were just so young. She has another child and has moved on in her life. And Jared was married with 2 more little babies of his own.

I hear Summer went to see Jared before they took him off of the artificial air supply he was on. I can't even imagine how that was for her. She is such a sweet woman. :( I have never met Jared's wife and newest children. I ache for her as well. She had a grown up love with Jared. And I can understand how it would feel to lose that. :(

Kay and Doug are the parents of Jared. I worry about Kay. I just want to hold her. If you knew Kay you would just adore her!

I can't even imagine the pain and sorrows right now of this family. As they bury a son, a husband, a father, and a young sweetheart flame of yesterday past.

I remember him bouncing on my birth ball. I remember his glee to experience fatherhood to the fullest! I remember seeing a young boy become a man.

You may have died young Jared, but you lived a lot of life in such a short time.

For me the emotions are so strange. When TJ was taken from us it was so hard. And now here I am shaken. Two of my past clients have passed away. Clients that I shared a deep emotional tie to because of the way I served them in birth. Two in one year having left this earth. Both of them younger than me. Both of them the parent of more children than I. So much they have left behind.

Two people gone...that taught this doula and student midwife so very much. I thank them for the lessons they gave me. I am thankful for the short time they allowed me into their lives, to be a part of their families. To share life's greatest moment, the birth of a child.

You never know when you leave here folks. Be ready. Live like you could be gone in an instant! Don't take this life for granted.

Be in prayer for this family.