Celebrating Jevon

Day Twenty-four:  June 26th

This is a picture of our beloved and unstoppable—yet tragically stopped—nephew Jevon.  At the age of thirty Jevon died in a bicycle/truck accident. He was only in the second week of his residency as an emergency room doctor in Little Rock, Arkansas, straight out of medical school.

Today in Castlecove, County Kerry we had the privilege of celebrating his life in a place he loved passionately.  This photograph captures him on a much-visited rock by the sea, at the home of his aunt and uncle, with the friendly Ally, one of Janet and Finbarr's three border terriers.  This wild and rocky shore has a strong effect on a person;  it is both calm and lively and everything here feels right again.

Here is another much-loved photo of Jevon with his mom Alida and our daughter Irene at one of the family reunions in Maine.

It is wonderful to have fifty plus people gather together to remember a young man that was so full of life that he continues to inspire those who knew and loved him today and every day.  I am not exaggerating when I say that in his thirty years of life Jevon lived more than ninty percent of people in a lifetime.  The concentration of Jevon-love at this memorial was huge, and the presence of Jevon was felt by all.

We celebrated his life with silence and then sharing, a whiskey toast, ash-scattering, a reception of tea and sandwiches, a sit-down dinner at the Westcove house, and into-the-night music, singing, and dancing in the Stables.  About twenty young friends of Jevon's from his medical school days in Dublin came for the celebration.  They brought with them the love, acceptance, and spirit of these important friendships.  I think the students at UCD were a perfect group to understand and totally accept Jevon and his Jevon-ish ways.  He was absolutely in the right place.  These good friends, his cohort from medical school, are all so impressive; the event was filled with the smartest, most multi-talented, and fun young people one could ever hope to launch into the future of good and smart works.  Jevon would have been in that company.

Jevon's bench

We were always confident we would have Jevon with us, that at each event as a family—as it rolled out over our lives—he would be there.  He was family and he loved family, and all kids, and most pets.  As Alida said this week he cared not only about what you thought but why you thought what you thought.  He asked about the core issues in your life.  He made us think.  He sought out those he loved—he always asked to come along, he always thought up something fun to do.  I think we took him for granted but I don't believe he took us for granted.  He was a completely unique refreshing out-of-the-box thinker and dispenser of love, humor, and mischief.  He was Coyote or Kokopelli, a trickster and a creator.

He was a comet.