Score - Family 0, Heaven 1

I have written before about my family and I hope I’ve been clear about just how much my family means to me. I’ve posted pictures before of all of us at Thanksgiving on the back deck at Edisto, and there are a lot of us; I’ve written about my cousin Anna’s wedding; I’ve written about spending nights at Edisto with the cousins. And I’m writing again about the closeness of a family that means much more to me than I am able to put into words, for my family has shown itself to be one that exceeded everything I’d ever imagined it to be.

On Thursday, January 14, my uncle found his son, my cousin, on the couch where he had fallen asleep watching TV the night before. He had passed away during the night. He was 23 years old.

This was the first time our family has endured a tragedy of this magnitude. But rather than focus on the grief, in typical family fashion, we focused on the positive side. We turned the weekend into what could only be classified as a true celebration of my cousin Reese’s life.

While people mournfully stood in line to pay their respects to Reese and his immediate family, we all told jokes and laughed so hard we cried in the chapel of the funeral home; we tied bags of Reese's Pieces for people to take at the end of the funeral, and told stories and laughed so hard we cried; all of Reese's friends and family gathered at a bar after the visitation and toasted Reese with rounds and rounds of shots, and we cried, and we told stories and laughed so hard we cried; and a few of the family even partook in some minor vandalism in Reese's name. And there is no doubt in my mind that Reese would not have had it any other way. The only way it would have been better is if he'd been there with us. (He'd probably have been most proud of the painted boat. I am disappointed I wasn't a part of that, but everyone driving to Folly Beach will get a nice view of it!)

Telling jokes at the Twisted Fish. Shipp's face (far right) says it all.



Tying bags of Reese's Pieces so that everyone could take a little piece of Reese home with them!

I was moved so many times over the course of the weekend. Several I have mentioned above, but I was also moved by the amount of respect people still show for a funeral possession. If you happened to be driving down Mathis Ferry Road in Mt. Pleasant on MLK day, thank you. Thank you for stopping as we drove past. It never got old to see cars with strangers in them stopped on the side of the road as we passed. Just like the hundreds of Facebook messages left on Reese's wall don't get tiring. It's almost like talking to him.

To adapt a quote from Reese's favorite movie, our wolfpack is down by one. But Heaven just gained one incredibly cool person.

Save me a spot, Reesie. I'll see you again. And I'd like you to whip me up one hell of a good meal when I get there.