Jesse Rae Cunico - Left us  29 Sep 2006

My dearest Jesse

When a child dies, it is one of the hardest things in life to understand. Your life was so full of vitality, and it was snatched away before it was fully formed, like a rosebud snipped from the stem just as it begins to bloom.

I truly believe God took you home, knowing the tremendous impact your death would have on those of us who remain. You've earned your wings my beautiful boy!

I am so very proud of you and what you accomplished during your short life. You touched the lives of everyone around you, and your love shines down on us all.

When I lost you, I lost part of myself. I'm so thankful you knew Christ as your Lord and Savior, for in him, we all have a blessed hope. God bless you my son, and I'm anxious for the day we'll be reunited!

an adoring Father who loves and misses you very much,

Dad

I don't think I would use the term "self motivator" to describe Jesse. When I would try to encourage him to be more forceful about his future, it would drive him crazy. He would sprawl back and tell me, "Dad, have faith. The timing is not mine but My Lords".

His faith truly was what he lived for!

A plaque on my wall

He left me with the most important lesson I ever contemplated.
We should always appreciate the days.
Cares them.
And get the most out of them. For they are numbered and they end.
Often when we least expect it.

The following was provided by Jesse's maternal Grandmother, Wanda Butler - 18 Oct 2006

Death is nothing at all. I have slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, we are still. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed, at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effect, without trace of shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant, it is the same as it ever was, there is an unbroken continuity. What is death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you for an interval, somewhere very near ,just around the corner.  ALL IS WELL.
 

Canon Henry Scott Holland(1847-1918)