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Desmond Stories
Jeremy had a special
uniqueness about him. Everyone loved Jeremy and always wanted to be around
him because he always had some crazy idea or was doing something out of
the norm. This page was designed exclusively for people to tell,
what many of Jeremy's friends refer to as, "Desmond Stories" and
remember the good memories about Jeremy's life.
Friends:
"Jeremy and I grew up together, sort
of!! Each year when he would visit Sarah we would all get together at Zack
Bender's house. When Jeremy finally moved to Ada he never let me live down
the time we all went swimming and I pulled my hair over my face and curled
it back and said "Look, I'm George Washington." It always made me feel
good that he remembered little things like that. After high school
and into our college days we still hung out on occasion...I remember
one time I had a few friends over and Jeremy was one of them. We were talking
about the neighbors because they were all hanging out on their front porch.
I told him that I didn't know them because they didn't speak English. That
didn't get in Jeremy's way...he took it upon himself to introduce
me to my new neighbors by going over and speaking Spanish to them! He really
held a place in my memory as a great person, I remember when I found out
the terrible news and it was just devastating, I do miss him truly but
I know we will meet again." -- Brittney Hanson (Hoover)
"i remember meeting jeremy at the
gas station in town, where he worked, just after we had moved to van buren.
he was such a good looking, and exceptionally nice young man. i remember
talking to him about my husband's hometown of chowchilla which is near
fresno, where jeremy had lived. i think it was fresno. anyway,
that's my first memory of jeremy. he made such an impression because
he was a genuinely kind, friendly person. jeremy was a wonderful young
man with everything going for him. we know that he is even more wonderful
now in the glory of heaven. until that day when those who belong
to Christ will be gathered together to meet Him in the clouds, we will
always remember jeremy desmond with love and appreciation." -- marilyn
cantrell
The Taco Eating Contest
"One time during our junior
year at Van Buren High School, Jeremy and I decided to have a taco eating
contest at Taco Bell. Our goal was to get our names posted on the Taco
Bell wall for eating so much. When the day of the contest arrived, we couldn't
wait until school let out so that we could drive to the Taco Bell in Poplar
Bluff. When we got there, we both ordered a ten-pack of tacos and
a small sprite. I was surprised when Jeremy ordered his tacos with
cheese. I joked with him and said that they would give him "the business"
but he said he said that a small amount of cheese wouldn't hurt.
We sat down and started to devour our tacos. The first six or seven
went down pretty easily. After that, our pace greatly slowed down.
We then decided to take a break and refill our Sprites. After our
stomachs settled, we began to eat some more. Although we were on
the verge of vomiting, we both managed to finish the remainder of our ten-pack
of tacos. The Taco Bell staff was quite amazed at our eating ability
but failed to put our names on the wall. After we were done, I joked that
I had eaten more because my tacos had sour cream and Jer's didn't.
About 10 minutes later we went to K-Mart where we talked to some Three
Rivers (junior college) basketball players. Upon leaving K-Mart,
Jer bought a snickers bar which he ate in the parking lot, therefore, winning
the eating contest. It was a total blast except for "the business"
that we had to deal with later." -- Tom Keeney.
"In May of 1995 my husband Jack, and
I were married. We wanted to have close friends and family members
to be a part of our wedding. We were blessed to have five bridesmaids
and five groomsmen. Jeremy, being one of our closest friends, was
an obvious choice. All the guys looked so handsome standing in the
front of the church! Well, the wedding was beautiful and went off
without a hitch. At the reception, I ran into Janell and she said,
'I'm so sorry'. I thought, what? Well, Jeremy was rarely seen
without a hat, and my wedding reception was not exception! She said,
'I told Jeremy to take that hat off, that you weren't going to like that!'
We laughed, knowing, that it was just Jeremy being Jeremy! It was
that gray 'No Fear' hat that he wore all the time...what, he couldn't pick
one that matched, even just a little? But it was alright with us,
the hat just the gave the tuxedo personality! It is also tradition
in my husband's family to throw the new husband in the river, or whatever
body of water is the closest! This group of my husband's close friends
abandoned all sense of loyalty whatsoever and dragged him to the riverbank,
and you guessed it, had no problem picking him up and tossing him in the Current
River! They all ended up getting wet! I'll treasure the picture
that the photographer took of all the guys after they sloshed out of the
water. And after all that, there was Jeremy, still with his hat on!"--
Erica Griffin
"Angela and I had taken the boat out
and we met Jeremy at KOA. He wanted to go up river with us...so we
went WAY up. Well, that's when he taught me how to skip rocks.
(Which I still know how to do thanks to him). Then out of no where
clouds appeared and we started feeling rain drops. So we drove (rode)
as fast as we could back to his Rodeo for shelter. By the time we
got there it was raining buckets, so we sat in there forever, until we
realized that it was not going to stop. The boat was filling up with
water, and we knew we had to get it out of the river and under shelter
before it sank. So we rode back to town to get Angela's trailer so
we could take it out of the water back at KOA. Well that took us
like an hour, so when we finally got back we had to shovel water out of
the boat. Then Jeremy and I had to push the boat to this little bitty
dock to get it on the trailer...it took all of us to get it on there right.
We didn't really know what we were doing. It was so crazy!
Finally like 5 hours after it had started to rain, we were headed back
to town. That night we all went to the drive-in. It was me,
Angela, Jeremy, Tom, and some other people, but I can't remember them all.
It was so much fun, but we were so tired from all the work that we went
through that day!" -- Ashley Black [See
Picture from that day]
Family:
"I don't recall how old that I was
at the time, probably around 5 or 6 years old. I had just lost my first
tooth in the car on our way home from somewhere. I was so excited about
losing my first tooth. Now, our driveway consisted of hundreds lightly
colored rocks and as I got out of the car I dropped my tooth onto the pile
of rocks below. I was devastated. Losing (literally too) my first tooth
was a big deal to me, and here it was, lost forever. Or so I thought.
Jeremy, (Who would have been about 8 or 9) seeing my hopeless despair (okay,
endless whining and crying.) Ran into the house and got one of his baby
teeth that our mother had saved. Jeremy then pretended to search the
ground. To my surprise he had "found" my tooth. I was so happy.
It was many many years later that I found out that my baby tooth was still lost
in the rocks and that Jeremy had sacrificed this own tooth for my happiness.
I think that this story just goes to show what outstanding character that Jeremy
had. He was so willing to sacrifice for the happiness of others. [thanx Jer]" -- JLD
Jeremy loved to talk and was always
asking questions. He didn't always want to listen to the answers.
Most of the time before the answer was even complete he would be
asking another "why?"
When Jeremy was 4 his Uncle Darrel
and I took him to his cousin Darrel's High School graduation. Jeremy
was sitting between us in the cab of the truck and as usual he was asking
question after question. He was not really interested in the answers,
he mostly just loved to talk.
Uncle Darrel
decided to turn the tables on Jeremy and began to ask "why?" to everything
Jeremy said.
Jeremy
tried to answer each question but "why" after "why" began to take its toll
on him. He had finally had enough. After yet another "why"
from Uncle Darrel, Jeremy, with hands on hips and as much dignity
as possible said, "Uncle Darrel, I am trying to be patient with you!"
Jeremy,
we will try and be as patient as possible here on earth until we
join you in the place Jesus has prepared for us in the presence of
our loving heavenly Father.
We would
gladly answer every "why?" you would ask if we could have you back with
us. But, the truth is that you are happier where you are now
then you have ever been and we would not take that from you.
I will
always hold you close to me in my heart.
I love
you, Aunt Jeanene
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