Six Months

 I wrote this in letter form to Stephen.

It has been 6 months to day since you left us Stephen. It does not seem like six months have past but the calendar does not lie. Many things have happened in these past six months. We celebrated Christmas and New Years. We have had birthday parties for Anthony and Alex, plus yours. We had a wonderful celebration for you Stephen on your 21st birthday. We spent much time at the cemetery over Memorial Day. Your mother and I gave out 2 $500 scholarships in your memory to Cam Swenson and Sam Williams. They were both very grateful and appreciative. We will continue this for years to come.
Your Disc Golf event is coming together quite well, we have almost 100 people planning on coming and we are putting all the details together. Many businesses have stepped up to help sponsor your event. You touched many lives Stephen and the are showing their love back to you. Play it Again Sports will be putting together an event for June to help raise money to support your Foundation. Hopefully we will raise awareness of this awful disease that took your life and find answers as why you were taken so away from us so quickly. I have been in contact with Dr. Cooper at the Mayo Clinic who is the leading expert on Myocarditis and I may even go out and speak  to help raise awareness.
We will never forget you Stephen and neither will many others. Not a day has gone by that you have not been in our thoughts. We miss you every day and are preparing for the day we are reunited. In the meantime Stephen we are keeping the candle of your memory  lit and it will never fade.
We know the next 6 months will be filled with ups and downs but our love for you will not fade.

Love,
Mom and Dad

In honor of Mothers Day I wanted to post what Stephen wrote about his mother in his Senior Portfolio.

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there, it was a tough one at our house today but we celebrated the day with our mothers and spent some time at the cemetery with Stephen.

 

My Mom

 My Mom is Darla Reynolds and she was born in Willmar on August 2 to Norman and Carol Schueler. She is 5’ 3” with blonde hair. She has an older sister Cindy (Schueler) Cordes, who is 18 months older than her. She also has a younger brother Daniel Schueler who is seven years younger than her. If you ask her, she’ll say that she suffered from middle child syndrome.

My Mom grew up on east side of Willmar and she attended Lincoln elementary school. She’s always saying,” I was a Stinkin’ Lincoln Kid, before there were Thinkin’ Lincoln Kids!” She even started a group named that on Face Book. She graduated from Willmar High School in 1983. When she was in high school, she was on the Cardette dance line and was even President her senior year.

When we were younger, we were lucky enough to have our Mom at home.  For many years, she was a “stay-at-home-mom”.  She did that until my youngest brother went to school all day. She currently works at the Willmar Middle School as an In-School Suspension supervisor and has worked there for four years.  Even though she works with some pretty tough kids, she real likes her job.  The one part of her job she enjoys is when she can actually get through and help some of the kids that she works with.

My Mom really enjoys spending time with friends. She also likes traveling and being an amateur photographer. She also likes dancing, which probably comes from her years she was in Cardettes. During her spare time, you can usually find her at the YMCA working out.

                Sometimes my Dad and Mom like to get away on their own for vacations. They have been many more places that I have been to. They went to New Zealand and Australia to see my brother in 2005. They have also been to Mexico and New York twice.         

My mom and I will always be close. She is usually attends all my sporting events from soccer, football, hockey, baseball, and tennis. She hardly misses a game and I really appreciate all the support she has given me throughout the years. I know my mom has taken probably thousands of pictures of me and all of my activities that I have participated in. Each year she has made photo memory books for me for each sport.  Those will be wonderful keepsakes for me as I get older and help me remember all the fun times I had while playing sports.

I really think she is just a great mother because of all the things she does. She is a very organized and likes to likes to have everything perfect at home. This is hard to do with three sons. Throughout the years, she has chauffeured us boys to all of our activities. All of us have a certain dry marker color and she fills out three months in advance all of our activities. Everything around the house is great just because of her. I really just appreciate everything that she has done for me and love her very much.

               

This is from Stephens Senior Portfolio, I thought today would be a great day to share this with you.

The Day I was Born

In everyone’s life there are always very stressful times. Like a job change, moving, a death in the family and a child being born. When I was born these are the four things my parents were going through. My Dad lost his Father exactly one month before I was born. Before he passed away my parents were in the process of buying Grandparents’ house.  Then before I was born my Dad made a change in his employment. So, when I asked my Dad about the day I was born, he could not remember a lot about it, except that the weather was nice and it was a scheduled cesarean section.

When I asked my Mom, she knew a few more details. She also remembered that the weather was beautiful. She also said that she had bought all pink things for herself to wear at the hospital, because she was certain she was having a girl. She had a pink nightgown, robe and slippers. Her pregnancy she experienced with me was completely opposite from when she was pregnant with my older brother Anthony. My Mom had lots of heartburn with me and everyone kept telling her that it would be a girl with lots of hair. They were definitely wrong!

My due date was May 5^th, but since my Mom had an earlier cesarean section, they said they would wait until after the due date and schedule the delivery for May 7^th, 1991. My Mom said they prepped her in her room and then wheeled her down to the operating room. She said that she talked to all the other people who were waiting to have surgery that day. She didn’t know what kind of surgery they were having, however they were all excited to hear that my Mom was there to have a baby. My Dad joined my Mom in the operating room. Mom was looking forward to being awake for my birth; she was asleep when she had Anthony and was disappointed that my Dad already named him and all the relatives saw him before she did.

After the epidural kicked in they started the c-section. When I came out they said I was a boy, Mom said that she thought she heard wrong, because she thought for sure it was a girl. But, no it was an almost bald baby boy weighing 9 pounds and 1 ounce and I was 20 ½ inches long. My Mom and Dad were very happy to have another son. Mom said that it really didn’t matter if I was a boy or girl, as long as I was healthy.

When my parents were deciding on what to name me, they had a few names that they liked. However, they found out after talking to each other that when my Dad was born his name was either going to be Michael or Steven. Then when my Mom was born if she was going to be a boy, her name was also going to be Steven. So, that pretty much settled what they were going to name me. My Mom wanted the Biblical spelling. My middle name James is also my Dad’s and Grandfather’s middle name. That’s how I came to be Stephen James Reynolds.