~a sad day~

June 20th will be a day that I will never forget and it will forever change our family. We got a phone call around 11pm and you know that can never be good news - Nick handed me the phone and my aunt Marianne was on the other end. I could tell something was wrong, really wrong - she was very quiet and she told me that she had lost her Rex tonight. I was like, what are you talking about?? She just said he was in a boating accident and didn't survive and she was trying to get a hold of my mom. I was in tears at that point and didn't know what to say to give her comfort. I told her to hang up and I'd have my mom call her right back. I had called my dad and could barely talk - I told him Rex was in a boating accident and didn't make it and that Marianne needed to talk to mom.
My dad had called back later that night and I was just sick. I guess Rex had been out fishing with 2 other guys and a wave had come into the 20ft skiff they were in - eventually the boat capsized and the 3 struggled to stay on top of the boat for about 2 hours. At that point the 2 with lifejackets, my cousin and another man decided to swim for the shore which was about 200 yards away. The water was freezing and the 2 didn't make it to shore. The man who stayed with the boat did survive and had to be flown to the hospital.
This has been a tough few weeks for our family. My aunt and Quinn were supposed to leave the next day for Utah for a 3 week visit.
Obviously not all of our family could head to Yakutat, Alaska to comfort my aunt, uncle and cousin at this difficult time. We decided to go ahead with Grandpa's party and just have it with our immediate family and have a memorial for our Rex! We went around and told memories we had with Rex and I had recorded them so we could share them with the Newlun's. We also wrote messages on red balloons to send up to heaven so Rex could read them. Tracy had pictures blown up and displayed, I did a collage of pictures and Sharley put together a dvd with pictures of Rex's life.
Rex was an amazing young man - in his 17 years of life he had probably experienced what most grown men dream of. Living in Alaska he had fished, shot a bear, moose, lynx and many little creatures!  Although I didn't know him all too well, he was always so great with my kids and very polite and genuine.
We will miss you Rex and you'll forever be in our hearts...

brooklin and zach

jeff, bart, kylee, ansley and april

sharley and kirstin

little addi bug