Kaleb

Our family was lucky enough to get to know this young man:

This is Kaleb.  He and his family moved into our ward when Kaleb was 12.  Kaleb was diagnosed with cancer when he was in fourth grade.  He had beaten it once but was diagnosed again just before moving into our ward.  He was one of Jeremy's deacons and his sister McKenna was in my primary class.  Kaleb and McKenna came to church with us almost every week for a couple of years while they lived here.  Jaxon and Kaleb became close friends and they loved to hang out together.  Kaleb beat cancer again but was only in remission for a couple of months before he had another relapse.  He kept finding ways to beat cancer, but cancer kept finding it's way back to Kaleb.  McKenna and Kaleb moved about 15 minutes north of us but Jaxon and Kaleb still got together quite often and Jaxon would visit Kaleb in the hospital and they would play Xbox together online.  Kaleb's family loves Jaxon and knew that Jaxon would light up Kaleb's day.  Kaleb passed away on June 12, just a couple of  months short of his 16th birthday.  The morning of Kaleb's passing we were able to take Jaxon up to Kaleb's house so that Jaxon could say good-bye.  It was one of the hardest things that I have ever done as I know that Jaxon's heart was broken.  Jaxon had been on the the Xbox with Kaleb just the night before and Jaxon knew that Kaleb wasn't doing well.  I am thankful that they had that time together that night before Kaleb passed.

The afternoon Kaleb died, we decided to go to Chick-fil-A, one of Kaleb's favorite restaurants, to toast chicken nuggets to Kaleb.

This is the display that the family had set up at Kaleb's viewing and funeral.  It was everything that Kaleb loved.  The display also showed all of Kaleb's history with cancer.

A poem written and read at Kaleb's funeral by Todd Gurney, our bishop while the Heaps family lived in our ward.

 They asked Jaxon to be a pallbearer for Kaleb.

Jaxon and his friends truly mourned.  They drew comfort from each other (right).  It was heart wrenching, yet I drew comfort from them as they comforted each other.

This is a great group of friends.  From left to right: Jake, Jaxon, Hailey, Savannah, Mia, Brinlee, Maya, Megan and Brin.  They left the luncheon and went to Costa Vida for lunch, another one of Kaleb's favorite eating spots.