We miss you!!!!! I am thankful every day that I was able to know you!
Love you J.J.

Thinking of your sweet smile and gentle eyes. 
We love you JJ - always and forever. 

Pretty tough today.

I'm heading up to Maine next week to see your new nephew.  
Damn Covid, he's almost a year old and haven't held him yet.  

He's as cute as a bug, he's lurch-walking now, has one tooth on top, two on the bottom, and likes to chew straws so I got silicone ones.

I'm taking you with me to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia Nat'nl Park.

We can both climb the mountain together.

I love you, JJ.



15   weeks
108    days
2,592    hours
155,520    minutes
9,331,200    seconds

I don't know what to do.  I see you everywhere I go.   
I have a wall of mementos in your old room....I see a poem you wrote or a picture of you and me,  or you and Grandmother, or just...you.  
Like the shot of you and Dublin at his 10th birthday party at Fun Station....."....and you presented a fine example of the PEZ dispenser, with a flourish and a regal wave of your hand!!"

I think my wishing and crying (grieving) is very selfish...it doesn't help you; your corporeal self is gone....what I'm feeling now is beyond guilt.  Can't change anything for anybody...myself, your dad, anybody.
I don't have the words but I need to talk to you, like I wish we talked on the phone (your Uncle calling me at midnight for a joke and me thinking there was an emergency, doesn't count😱😱)

I don't have the luxury and the comfort of being held in your Grandmother's arms , as we cry together.   
Mama's health is so delicate and precarious, I decided it would serve no purpose to tell her that now there was no chance we'd ever see or hug you again.  I hope she forgives me.  She has photos of you everywhere, and plastered all over her kitchen💞

Please watch over her for me and all those cats she loves💕  Plus the niece and nephew you never met.  You would've have loved them instantly and had the best time getting to know them!

I have a plan to take you to Table Rock, where you and Monty climbed to the top....and we're looking for the mountain rock which will carry your name, your parent's names, your date of birth, and that you died on my birthday.

You're in every breath I take.  I hope one day we'll climb Table Rock together, and Uncle Monty and Daddy will be waiting, to guide us the rest of the way, together.

Mom

How can I describe J.J.? Well, he was a very smart individual that would love to listen and talk about anything that interests you. He loved to learn, very inquisitive, especially about Science. He stayed with Rebecca and I for quite a while and I would have to say I learned more from him than he learned from me He taught me how to play chess and he was a good teacher. He was patient, understanding and compassionate. I would play him everyday and I think I won maybe two or three times…..and those times I believe he let me win to help me feel better He had so much energy at all times and enjoyed interaction with family and friends immensely. His heart was always in the right place.  He worried about his family and friends all the time. He seemed to always want to make sure everyone was in a good mood. It hurts my heart to think about his passing.  He was a wonderful and cherished addition to this world and still is because he lives on in our hearts. He inspires me to be a better person with learning, teaching, and overall appreciation of life. I have known him since he was about 7 years old and I still remember the memory vividly of him running around the yard playing as I drove to pick up his brother David when we were teenagers to hang out. He would run up to me with that signature smile on his face and immediately put me into whatever game he was involved in He will be forever loved and missed.

I will miss you, JJ. I remember you well. It's a good and a bad thing that my memories of you stop at the point that you left town, when I was in middle school I think. It's good because I can only remember you as you were back then, and it seemed such a much simpler time and we loved playing with you. You seemed so cool to us younger children. I have great memories - maybe my last ones of you - of working on cleaning and fixing the Morganton house with you and many other Glenn family members. That was so much fun. Those are some of my very favorite, happiest, most colorful nostalgic memories of my whole life. The memory has always stayed with me, and it's memories like that one (and the beautiful weather) that inspired Joey and me to move to North Carolina in a few years. We'd like to be in the land where the Glenn memories are swirling through the trees and in the air. But it's a bad thing that we have no more memories of you after that because that is a sadly-lost opportunity to have gotten to know you better. People become so much more interesting as time goes by (as they get older), and with that, people become more complicated, too. We would've helped you or listened to you as your life got more complicated or if you were wishing it would go a different way. It's the same thing with my dad - my memories of him ended when I was 12. I wasn't old enough while he was alive to have thought to (or cared to) ask him questions about himself and make him feel important or interesting. He thought we hated being with him. He was so difficult and sad for nearly all of my memories. I hope you'll please say hello to him for me, and tell him I'm desperately, endlessly sorry and I'd do anything to go back and talk with him. We will miss you very much, JJ. It's more than unfair the way that you passed away. I'm so sorry it was that way. You did not deserve it. Please rest in peace, and as Aunt Ellen said, may you never be hurt again.

Love, Daphne

Dearest Sister:

My heart is bleeding for you. I cannot fathom your pain. There is no greater pain. Even more so in these deeply tragic and  terribly cruel circumstances. 

But I hope you will not heap regrets or recriminations upon yourself.  You are an amazing sister, mother, and family member. You’ve always done everything you could for others. I’ve always said you’ve stood up and been there for me and done anything in your power when I needed it, even if I didn’t ask. You are the epitome of resilience. Your family has inherited  that from you and so many other rare qualities. 

I’m so very sorry I’m not there during this horrific time. You’re in my heart and mind every minute. And as we pass special or beautiful places, I am sending out thoughts and memories to JJ and you and your family. 

I apologize to you and your family for not being as involved as I’ve wanted to be in the past.  I plan to do much better. 

To you my sister, and to Ernie, David, Rebecca and Josh, Dylan and Chloe, and Jessica, you are a family to be admired and emulated. Your closeness- despite differences- is there for all to see. Youve always been there for me and other family members. 

I love you very much my poor suffering sister.  I love you very much dear family members. I’m thinking of you all every day. 

Dear JJ: 

I can’t believe this happened. I can’t believe we won’t be able to hug you again. I can’t believe I missed my chance to get to know you. I’m so sorry that I didn’t show you how much I cared and do care. I just want you to know that I did and do care. I hope you know and knew that from some things I wrote and said at certain critical points in the past (I won’t go into detail here) and hope you felt special and loved then. But otherwise I let you down.

We never know what’s in store for us. We don’t appreciate each day and live each day as if it were our last or treat each other as if it were our last day, but we should. We must. 

I would give anything to see you again, to give you back to your family, but I can’t. I can only remember your sweet and sometimes mischievous smile and gentle eyes. I think of you every day and will forever. You will live forever in our hearts. Your energy and sweetness will remain with us and beautify our lives and the world. I love you so much. 

Dear JJ,
There are so many things I wish I could say to you now. I wish I'd said them when I had the chance. Many of us feel that way...I hope somehow that you know.

Even though your life was cut tragically short, you made a difference. You mattered. You were loved. You ARE loved. And missed.

My favorite memory of you is the NC trip Mark and I took with you when you were 14. With Mark's  silly sense of humor (it took our family a while to get), he called you "Jota, Jota!" with great dramatic flair. I think you smiled and thought he was weird. But we had fun. 

We visited your Great-Granddad and your Great-Uncle Monty. One day you, Uncle Monty, and Mark and I ate at the all-you-can-eat Daniel Boone Inn. Mark was driving when we left, you were in the back seat, and pretty soon he was taking those mountain curves with, um, some pizzazz. After a little while, we both realized you'd gotten VERY quiet. I turned around to see if you were ok, and your sweet face was a slight shade of green...you didn't want to tell us you were getting carsick! We felt so bad!  But Uncle Monty sure got a big kick out of it.

We left you to stay longer with Uncle Monty and heard how you both had a great time. He dearly loved you. At Table Rock, you took the last picture of him alive. He looked so happy. Thank you for that. He died a few weeks later. 

I don't know what to say except that I'm just so sorry, JJ...that your life was cut short; that your mom, dad, sisters, and brother are so full of sorrow and missing you; that I wasn't there for you as I should've been, didn't get to know you all grown-up. But I'm also so grateful you were here...you're still here...and you made other people's days and lives better, just being yourself: what I remember as a shy, sweet, mischievous soul. Rest in peace, JJ. I know you're riding your bike all over the heavens above us, hanging out with those who love you, meeting the real Garfield...and you'll never be hurt again. I love you. Aunt Ellen

I still can't believe you're gone, JJ.  I thought there'd be time for us to reconnect, for me to get to know John.   
JJ or John, you were never out of my heart.  You are my baby and always will be.
How many times have we talked about you or mentioned how much you'd like this or that.  
I can't imagine what your poor father is going through but you'd be so proud of him.  Soon, everyone will know what coward did this to you.
Say hello to Daddy for me and Uncle Monty and your Great-GrandDad.  
It's such a cliche and it's so true:  You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.  I love you so much and this hurts so bad.
Mom



OBITUARIO

John James Rice

19 abril, 1989 – 24 julio, 2019

Culley's MeadowWood Funeral Home

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