Jessie M. Leach - The best Lufkin redneck friend anyone can ask for.

It's been a long several days.  On 8/8/2011, one of my closest friends past away.  I didn't find out until the following morning, very early in the morning.  I felt numb.  I was completely blindsided by the news.

After letting all of our mutual friends know about what happened, I was pretty mad.  OK, extremely mad!

A few days pass and Friday comes around.  The service was in Kingwood.  Sam and I arrive on time to greet Jess' family and friends.  I see his sister Sharon and her husband Jason, two of the nicest people I have ever met.  I'll tell the story how we all met in another post ; )

I tell Sharon how sorry I am while holding back tears and the big lump throat.  Jason and I talk and catch up up. We hadn't seen each other in a number of years.

I see Angela, Jessie's wife, and we go to see her.  We talk for only a few moments, and I say that I'm going to pay my respects to the friend that I thought would be here on earth for a long time.  Sam comes with me.  It's an open casket.  I clasp my hands together as if I were in prayer, and look at my friend.  Face looks waxy, lips darkened.  Hair is still the same, same goatee.  What really got me was he was still wearing his wedding ring.  I finally broke down.  Silent crying though.  Still hitting me in waves.  Streams of tears started to flow.  No matter how much I tried to stop them, there was nothing I could do.  I cried.  Sam brought me tissues and I stepped away from the casket.  I sat down and said some prayers for my friend.  I prayed that he was OK, I prayed for God to take good care of him, and I prayed that his soul was finally at rest.

The next day, I made my way to Kingwood again for his funeral.  Sam couldn't make it.  I had to go at it alone.  I met up with our good friend Landon.  He was taking it pretty hard also.  Especially since Jessie got him the job where Jessie was working.  Since we were pallbearers, we all had to wear pink ties.  Landon and I talked for a bit, then it was time for the funeral.  We walked into the chapel and sat down in the front row.
You can hear Ozzy Osborne playing in the background.  Jess liked Ozzy.  The service started with his grandfather talking about how Angela and Jess met and a short history of Jess' life.  It wasn't until he started talking about Angela and Jess and how they fell in love and how they treated each other behind closed doors that I started to feel that lump in my throat and feeling my eyes start to water.  Again, streams of tears started to come down again.

It was time to drive to Lufkin to bury my friend.  It was a good drive, a good time to have thoughts to myself. Think about Jess and all the good times we had since our adventures at Calpine back in 2006.

Landon and I got there early, got something to eat, and waited for the rest of the family.  We carried Jessie to his final resting place.  The perfect place, right next to his son that passed before him.  Crying seemed the only thing that I've been doing for the last day and a half.  It was hot and it was time for us pallbearers to put our flowers on the casket and say our final goodbyes.  It was hard, I'm not going to lie.  It was really hard.  Landon and I leaned on each other like brothers.  Brothers who lost one of their own.

We headed to Jess' brother's house.  We wanted to say goodbye to his family before heading back to Houston.  We talked to everyone, letting them know how much we feel for them and how much we will miss Jessie.  An hour passed, and it was to leave and go back home.  I came back home to Sam, texted everyone letting them know that I made it home safe.  After talking with Sam for a few minutes, I finally broke down.  It felt like someone punched me. HARD.  It felt good to cry that hard.  I felt the waves of feelings all week, but it never came.

I was relieved it finally did.

I wish you a great journey, Jess.  I'll see you soon.