OUR STORY

Jalil

May 14, 1998-September 10, 2018)

Jalil was the light of our family from birth.  He was always so silly you could not help but laugh at almost everything he said and did.  He was the baby of four children until he was 12 years old.  He would sit in my lap and we used to joke, “I’m sorry baby but you just cannot go back in!” We were as close as mother and child could be so when his younger siblings came along I was concerned about his behavior.  I will never understand why I was worried because he embraced the role of big brother.  He did everything with them from teaching them to play basketball and watching movies, he would even sleep with them in their room when they were scared because he too remembered what it was like to be scared! Jalil grew into a man that I was so proud of.  He was such a great guy he made all of his friends feel like they were his best friend.  If you did not have a place to stay, he did not care if he had to fight with us, he was going to give up his bed and sleep on the couch. 

On September 10, 2018 I gave him a plate of nachos, he kissed me on the cheek and said thank you mama, walked back into his room and a rain of bullets were flying into our home 60 seconds later.  Over 40 rounds were put through the garage, their bedroom, and our kitchen for one single tiny bullet to strike him in the back.  I had never heard gun shots, so I thought firecrackers were being let off.  He was dead within the hour.  He was 20 years old, 6’5” (still growing), and a phenomenal basketball player.

Baby Killian

(October 18, 2016-May 20, 2018)

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Killian was the first born to my baby cousin Joshua.  He was a vivacious 19- month old that was always happy and rambunctious. One afternoon he was playing outside when he had a seizure and collapsed.  His parents live in a rural community, Comfort, and paramedics had to send him by helicopter to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio (BAMC) where he died.  His young parents were in no way prepared financially to bury their baby! By the grace of God, they sold enchilada plates and a Go Fund Me account to raise enough money to have a beautiful service.

David

(February 9, 1982-June 11, 2002)

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David was a free spirit who was the only child to my aunt Patti. We were close all our lives! He was funny and loving while being ready to give a helping hand! When he was 20 and I was 25 we were both working at JP Morgan Chase when he had an aneurism in his sleep. His mother found him in the morning when he did not get up for work.  They both lived in a two-bedroom trailer they owned, a bedroom on each side, his room was the closest to the front door.  Since they lived a modest life with her social security and his employment at JP Morgan Chase his death caused a financial hardship.  After his sudden and devastating death my aunt sunk into a deep depression.  She could not afford to move, especially now that her son’s income was gone.  The funeral was paid for by JP Morgan Chase thankfully but everything else financially was a struggle.  Every time she left or came home, she had to pass by the room that she found her only child without life. She said some days it would comfort her to go in there, but most, it made it so unbearable to be alive she did not want to leave her bedroom.  She made it seven agonizing years after the loss of her precious boy (October 31, 2009).  She died of an accidental drug overdose.  She had been given a fentanyl patch by her doctor, her first time ever using it, and she died the next day. 

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