I opened facebook yesterday and started scrolling but without really paying attention to what I saw. I saw a post with pictures where my friend Skip was tagged to. Didn’t pay much attention to it, continued scrolling.
A couple of hours later I did it again, just randomly scrolling and the same post came up but this time it was something that made me stop. It was a post from his wife. Skip was gone. What in the world? The only information it said was that Skip had passed away at 3:30 am yesterday morning.

I got to know Skip through CERT. He joined the group shortly after me. Despite his health issues he was the one who always tried to show up. And he always was in a good mood, he was the best to talk to people and promote CERT. He had so much knowledge about random stuff. And he truly cared about people.
Several times when I had been to the hospital he called me up to just make sure I was okay. Heaven truly got an angel in the house now! I can see Skip and mom sit and watch over me and laugh together. They had the same kind of humor!

So today I had to send a card I never want to send. A condolences card to the family. I had to remove his birthday card from the stack. It is always awkward and weird to remove birthday cards from the stack. Just to get all the administrative things done when someone has passed away is something of the weirdest things to do. And Skip will leave such a big void after him!

Rest in peace Skip! We’ll take it from here! All prayers and thoughts to your family and friends!