Remembering Walt Gardner

On the 14th of March, Walt passed away. I was hanging out with Danny when dad called me. The calling hours were last Friday and the funeral was on Saturday. One of Walt's grandchildren approached me at the calling hours. Her name's Vanessa, but I forget what her last name is now. She hugged me and asked softly, "How's your dad holding up?" I told her that he wasn't doing good. Walt was like a second father to my dad. Dad was so close to Walt, that at the calling hours, he was part of the line that greeted the mourners as they walked in to pay their final respects. At the funeral, they saved a seat up front for my dad. After the funeral, Shirley handed my dad the box that contained Walt's ashes. We believe she handed them to dad, because he was the only one she trusted with them. When the flag was raised back at Akraturn, dad was part of that as well. Shirley said that my dad was like her adopted son and I'm sure she knew how bad he felt that Walt was gone. I'm going to miss Walt too. He did a lot for our family. He made it to my graduation party when I graduated high school. He gave me a job one summer when I was saving up to pay for another semester at college. He did a lot of things that most bosses wouldn't do for their employees. Then again, Walt didn't see us as employees. He saw us like family. At the after-party, Vanessa went over to my dad and said, "thanks for the shrimp, Uncle John." I was a little taken back. Even Walt's grandchildren thought of us like family. Pam, Vanessa's mom, came over to visit at our table. I asked her something and she said, "you'll have to ask your Uncle Doug that one." Yeah... uh... I like Pam and David, but Doug... he's just my boss. Me calling him an Uncle would be pushing it for me. His sons are alright, but Doug... he can be a prick. I do feel sorry for him, though. It can't be easy losing your father. I know that I don't know what I'm going to do when that time comes. I felt really bad for Vanessa and Chris. I know how hard it is to lose a grandfather. That was the worst week of my life. I feel bad for the entire Gardner family. I hope their pain will eventually fade from this tragedy.

Not Getting Any Better

February wasn't really a great month. So far, March has been brutal. My favorite boss is dying. The last time I saw him, was in December. We met him at the Elk's Club for a few drinks. Walt Gardner's a great man. He's helped get us out of a few tough situations. When I needed a job in the summer, he gave me one at the machine shop. My dad's taking it extremely hard, which I knew would happen. What happened, was Walt and his wife Shirley went on vacation to Daytona, Florida. They go every year. Well, when they got there, Walt showed signs of having congestive heart failure, which is what my grandfather had and eventually took his life. He had an operation, but it didn't help as much as everyone thought it would. Then, he started to get progressively worse. We found out last week, that he has cancer. First, it was in his neck. However, last Friday we found out that it's brain cancer. I wish I could thank him for everything that he's done for us, but I know my dad won't want me to see him in the state that he's in. The only thing I can do, is pray that he doesn't suffer too much. Also, I found out over the weekend, that Kelcie's boyfriend tried to strangle her to death. Now, he's not known to show forces of violence, but Kelcie wouldn't lie or exaggerate about this. Also, I saw the marks. No one knows why he acted the way he did. He claims to not remember anything and since they had been drinking the night it happened, it could be true. Regardless of that, Kelcie has an order of protection against him and he's looking at some jailtime. I heard he's trying to committ suicide. Normally, I'd try to stop someone doing that, but after hearing the story Kelcie told me, I won't lose too much sleep if he succeeds. I'm probably gonna sound like one of those people that claims "I never really cared for this person that much," but truth be told... Jon could urk me at times. I remember when some of my friends that know Kelcie would ask me what her "new" boyfriend was like. I'd reply, "he's an alright guy, but he's not me." What that pretty-much means, is that I never really cared much for ANY of Kelcie's boyfriends. I was able to tolerate Cody until he turned into a manipulative, egotistical, spineless, cocksucker. After Cody, I really didn't care the others. Most of them I never did meet, but they didn't last long anyways. Even though Mike Sisson's my boy, I was real uneasy about him trying to get with Kelcie, because I know how he gets if a girl starts to iritate him. I wasn't about to let that happen to Kelcie. The paramedic was a douchebag. Never got to meet him... didn't really wanna meet him. This Tom guy that she brought to my birthday party was just a pretty-boy. Other than that, he had nothing. Kelcie and I have grown real close in the year and a half that we've known each other. I don't know how she'd feel if I had a girlfriend. I'm almost curious to see what her reaction would be like. Would it be one of jealousy, would she be happy for me, or would she have mixed feelings? This past weekend, Kelcie called me to see if I wanted to drive up to Cortland. I said sure, so I picked her up at her friend's place (got lost getting there), took her home to get directions and her things, then we got lost again on the way up there, but we eventually made it. We stayed in Julie's little college apartment. On the way home, Kelcie was a bit buzzed from the beer she was drinking before we left. I was driving, so I was sober. She saw this picture that Denna put up of me and Bridgette from New Year's Eve. Kelcie was a bit upset by the picture, so she was explaining how she felt. She kept saying, "I care about you, Jack. Denna and Bridgette don't care about you, but I do," and she said if I started hanging out with Bridgette, she'd have no choice but to cut me out of her life. She said that it would hurt her to do it and she didn't want to, but she would if she had to. I assured her that there was no way I would ever hang out with Bridgette. Kelcie's my number one girl. I'll choose her first over anybody. I know I've said this before, but Kelcie should've been the one that I went after back in 2008. I bet anything that if her and I were to have dated in 2008, things would be different for both of us. I'd probably have graduated from BCC and I'd probably be doing well in Cortland. She'd probably be with me in Cortland. Both of us would be happy. But, I went down a harder path. Poor Kelcie hasn't really done anything to anybody, but all of these people have gone out of their way to make her life miserable. I don't agree with that. After seeing what this girl has gone through in this year and a half that I've known her, I only have one thing to say. For the next person that tries to make life difficult for her, they're gonna have to go through me. That goes for anybody and everybody. If you mess with her, you mess with me. If you mess with me, you mess with an army of people that have my back at all times. So, the next person that targets her, will have to get past me and that ain't happening.