In Memory of Dirk...

We found out yesterday evening that a friend of ours passed away earlier this week. It wasn't entirely unexpected, but I admit I was in shock that he really now is gone. Dirk is left behind by his wife, Nicole and their daughter Brynna, who is about 7-8 years old. I can't believe he's really gone, especially since I was asking Jared if he knew how he was doing the day before. We know Dirk & Nicole because Nicole has been Jared's co-worker since he started working with his company five years ago. We'd usually hang out with them at the company Christmas parties, summer work parties and have even played games at their house on occasion. Before we met Dirk he had battled colon cancer and was in remission. But a couple of years ago it came back and he had been fighting it ever since. Sometimes it was hard for me to remember that he had cancer because he still had all his hair and didn't look especially sick. He had a very witty humor and would always make us laugh. It was still a real surprise to hear that he had passed away during a vacation they were taking this week.

I feel so much sadness for Nicole. I've always kind of identified myself with her. They had also been going through infertility struggles for a long time. Many medical treatments to bring Brynna a sibling hadn't worked and I know they had talked about adoption. It would be so hard to not only loose your husband, but to have that dream of having more children being literally slammed shut. It would be like going through two major losses in one's life.

Due to the circumstances of Dirks cancer treatments over the years, their family couldn't exactly follow the mainstream typical LDS family. As I mentioned, Nicole is Jared's co-worker and is the breadwinner for this household. She's an electrical engineer and is very smart. Really, really, really smart. Dirk had been a stay at home dad for their little girl since she was born. I remember chatting with them that living these role reversals when you are an active member of the church is oftentimes very hard. I'm certain when they got married they weren't imaging that this is how their life would turn out. But I do have to admit that there comes a lot of comfort in knowing that Nicole will be able to continue to provide for her little family. I can imagine that it would probably be extremely difficult, if not impossible to get life insurance when you are in your mid-thirties and have been battling cancer over the past decade. I hope Brynna will be able to retain some of these sweet memories of her daddy being home with her, and being able to spend so much time with her.


We will miss you Dirk.