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Jeremiah Franklin Hamlett

In memory of Jeremiah Franklin Hamlett
May 8, 1979–January 19, 2007

“It all began that day when Jeremiah was at work in Rustburg doing an accounting job at the town’s local high school for the firm he worked for based out of Charlottesville when the violent shaking of his body interrupted his precious life. He was on the phone when it started. His eyes rolled back in his head showing only the whites as his pupils focused upward toward the Heavens.

His muscles began contracting; he couldn’t speak. He couldn't scream for help or even tell the person on the other line of the phone what was happening. His fingers stiffened and the phone hit the ground. He followed banging his head against the desk on the way down. My friend, the guy I grew up with who had lived for so many years across the street from me was having a seizure.

Within a matter of seconds one of his co-workers walked in and saw him lying on the floor moving around as if a fish out of water. She quickly dialed 911 and the ambulance responded and was soon on their way.

He was scared because nothing like this had ever happened to him before and embarrassed because he had urinated his pants when the seizure began. He had lost complete control of his bodily functions and knew nothing of what had happened because he had blacked out when it all began.

The EMT workers walked in and checked his eyes with a small flashlight and grasped for his wrist to check his pulse. He was still tense as they began asking questions trying to find out more of what had just happened. Instead of being carried he chose to walk to the rescue squad with no assistance from anyone.”

That’s from a story about Jeremiah I have been writing since he was first diagnosed with cancer over three and a half years ago. I have sat here for over three weeks now trying to find a way to summarize in a few short paragraphs one of the best friends I, and many others, have ever had in life and truthfully, I can’t do it. I honestly can’t characterize Bullfrog with only a handful of words. I cannot describe the indescribable. Unless perhaps a few key words and phrases like “the love of mayonnaise, golf, basketball, and Michigan” are presented.

What I do know is that to me and to all of our friends, he was and still is one of the most exceptional human beings to ever grace anyone’s presence and that everyone of us has reserved a place for him in our hearts down here, much the same as we know he has reserved a place for us in his in Heaven.

Jeremiah gave us the most memorable twenty-seven years of not only his life but our lives as well and as the saying goes, “Jeremiah was a Bullfrog. He was a good friend of mine.”

If you would like to read The Court: Jeremiah’s Story then please follow this link:
http://www.storymania.com/cgibin/sm2/smshowtitlebox.cgi?title=TheCourtJeremiahsStory&category=shortstories&page=36

 

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