In Loving Memory of Tyler Joe (part 1)

Matthew 5:4 - "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

I wanted to end the blog with some of the details of our final celebration of Tyler's life and a demonstration of the love that you all have poured out on Tyler and Michelle this past week.

So, sit back, grab a cup of tea and get a box of tissues ready...this is going to be a long, emotional post. In fact, I'll break it into 2 posts for you, since I have a lot to say.

As difficult as this week was, we were so blessed by many of you attending Tyler's services and offering your time, your hugs and your donations. Some of you even flew in from far away places to honor Tyler and be with your friends who were suffering, and we appreciate that more than you know.

Our family was so touched when Tyler's nurses and doctors came to pay their respects as well. This is more than a job to them, it is a calling, and they have touched our lives in ways we never thought possible. Even the therapy dogs that Tyler loved so much, came to the funeral home to say their goodbyes. It was heartbreaking and touching at the same time. These doctors touched Tyler's life so much, that Michelle decided to have Tyler buried in the LSU sweatshirt that Dr. Murphy had given him, to wear when he got better. Tyler never got the chance to put it on, but now he will wear it forever. We are more than grateful for UofM Mott's hospital, even though Tyler was still rooting for OSU in the big game. He was glad UofM got greedy and went for the 2 point conversion ;)

The message the nurses wrote for him the day he was passing away.

Some of you may not know, but Michelle's best friend Kelly, tragically lost her young daughter 7 years ago to an epileptic seizure. This is a bond that no 2 friends should have to share, but Kelly is 7 years ahead of Michelle on this painful journey and is by her side all the way. Tyler is buried next to Dakota now, so they can visit their children together. We can't say thank you enough for the love and support you've always shown Michelle, especially now, Kelly (and your family).

The funeral home was filled with hundreds of pictures of Tyler, much to our surprise. When we gathered on Saturday night to put them together, we weren't sure what we could even come up with, knowing that Tyler hated his picture taken. Once we all gathered, we were overwhelmed with what we had found. We even had to go out and purchase more poster boards to get them all out there. Thank you to all who contributed to the pictures and flowers that made the funeral home full of personal touches.

The funeral services on Wednesday were beautiful. Tammy helped to pick out some songs with Michelle and somehow they picked the most fitting songs. My friend Darla, opened the service with her beautiful voice, and amazing talent, singing "Blessings in Disguise" by Laura Story. The words cut deeply.

Then, Tyler's aunts and I shared some personal thoughts and memories of Tyler. Those I will share on the next post. 

Pastor Kohler gave a compassionate message about how God is still good and still loving, despite these circumstances. He explained that the god that most bookstores sell is one that wants to make you happy, wants to give you things...and that is all washed away when something tragic like this occurs. He talked about what God's love is from 1 John 4:9-11 ^"By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I'm paraphrasing here, but he talked about how we are sinners, God tells us not to lie, we lie. God tells us not to steal, we still. And disease and death is a result of that rebellion against God because he cursed the world for it. Yet, He made a way and He demonstrates His love for us in that even in our rebellion, He sent his only Son to be a substitution for us...to take the punishment and God's wrath, for our sin. If we repent and have faith in Christ, we can have Eternal life through His sacrifice and resurrection. 

Darla then finished the service with a beautiful and powerful version of Amazing Grace. The family then said our final farewells to Tyler and a huge procession followed us to the grave site. There, we had more prayers and were reminded of the promise from Revelations 21 that awaits those who have faith in Jesus:

³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, ⁴ and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
⁵ And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

What a promise! I believe Tyler is in Heaven with Jesus now, free of pain and suffering. Praise God!

I know I talk a lot about the women who surround this boy, but the men in his life served as his pallbearers - Josh, BJ, Chris, Rob, Dennis, Aaron, Jason and David. And one more woman to mention, Kelly's mom, Madeline, led the way as the honorary pallbearer. It was beautiful!

Part 2

Funeral Arrangements

Good Morning,

Here are the funeral arrangements.

Obituary:

Tyler Joseph Kurkierewicz 

October 28th, 1994 - December 5th, 2013

Age 19, on December 5, 2013

Loving son of Michelle and Tim. Dear grandson of Bill and Diana Zanetti, and Eveline and Robert Kurkierewicz. Half brother to Cooper. Dear nephew of Patty Strader, Cheri (Chris) George, Tammy (Rob) Martoni, Karen (Fred) Buttke, Cindy (Don) Fields, Juanita (George) Willard, and Sandi (Dean) Blevins.

Memorials:

Memorial Contributions to the Wishes of the Family, payable to Michelle Kurkierewicz, are greatly appreciated.

If you would like to make a donation online, please go to Tyler's page on GoFundMe to make a secure donation: http://www.gofundme.com/1drbvk

Visitations:

3:00PM to 9:00PM on Monday, 

December 9th, 2013 

and

3:00PM to 9:00PM on Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Arthur J. Van Lerberghe Funeral Home 

30600 Harper Ave

St Claire Shores MI

Services:

In-state at 9:30AM, Service at 10:30AM at Arthur J. VanLerberghe Funeral Home on Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

Cemetery:

Resurrection Cemetery

18201 Clinton River Road

Clinton Township, MI 48038 

Rest in Peace, Tyler

It is with such deep sorrow, and a very heavy heart, that I share with you that Tyler passed away this evening. I have no words, only tears. I ask that you please pray for peace and comfort for the family. Please pray for Michelle, suffering from an unspeakable loss of her only child.

Once we have funeral arrangements, I will post them if you would like to come and pay your respects for a young man who became such an inspiration for his admirable fight against this awful disease. He was so courageous, fighting until the end. We will miss him immensely.

Blessings to you all,
Jettie

Thanksgiving

Tyler remains at UofM. They were really trying to get him home for Thanksgiving, but that isn't going to happen. The last couple of weeks have been extremely difficult. This disease is really trying to beat him. But Tyler isn't giving in. He's still up for the fight and giving it everything he has. I admire this kid so much. The hope he has that he is going to beat this, the will he has to keep going, it's astonishing to me!

I was up to see him Sunday and he's in a lot of pain still! It's heart wrenching to see. His shoulder and arm are in excruciating pain. He was at the max of all the pain drips they could give him, and still reporting a pain level of 10. They did a CT Scan and found lesions on his arm. They are assuming they are cancerous, but haven't done a biopsy. He did finally fall asleep while I was there that night, which was a nice relief and answer to my prayers. Monday, they put him back on the lidocain drip that was successful a few months back, in relieving his pain. Please pray for his continued comfort and peace, and relief from this pain.

Even though he suffers so much, I still thank God for giving us this time with Tyler. I have been seeing God's grace and kindness and mercy over Tyler (and our family) through this entire journey. I believe it is a miracle that he is still with us. I believe in the power of prayer and I'm thankful for you all that have been praying for him for so long. As I have said many times before, we will continue to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and praying without ceasing for Tyler. Please continue to join us in that prayer!

Most of our family will be gathering at the hospital tomorrow for Thanksgiving. We wish you all an enjoyable time with your families this holiday season. And again, thank you for all you have done for us over this past year.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Jettie

Needing prayers

Ty is still at UofM. He's having trouble with his stomach again. It is swelling and his drain tubes aren't working properly. They've put some new tubes in, but that hasn't helped. They did an x-ray last night, to see if anything out of the ordinary is going on, but it came back normal (for Tyler). He's mostly sleeping, but also throwing up and in a lot of pain. Michelle, Erin (his nurse) and the doctors are doing their best to figure out what is going on and get him more comfortable.

I saw him yesterday and it just broke my heart. The poor kid. He's suffering! More so than I've seen in some time. There are no words for it. Nothing you can say to make things better. All I could do was rub his frail hand on my way out and tell him I loved him.

Please pray for him. His mom and grandma are still there, sleeping in chairs by his side, night and day. Pray for them too.

Love,
Jettie

Hospital again...

Tyler gave us quite a scare last night. Michelle wasn't able to wake him up, although he was breathing fine. So, she had to call 911 and they came and took him to the nearest hospital. While there, they found that his blood sugar was down below 20. They were able to treat that and wake him up a bit, but then had him transferred to UofM, so he could be with his team of doctors that knows his case.As of this morning, he's awake but his sugar is still all over the place.

Please pray that his blood sugar will stabilize and they can get him back home again.

Thank you,
Team Tyler

So so thankful

Once again, Team Tyler thanks you for your continued prayers, devotion, love, care and generosity. If you are reading this blog, prayed for Tyler, sent a card, brought a meal or donated anything over the last year, we're grateful for you. There are no words that can properly express the amount of gratitude we have for all of you!

Wednesday's fundraiser was no exception. The turnout was, once again, overwhelming. I know I will leave names off, so this is by no means a complete list, but I would at least like to acknowledge many of you who devoted your time, energy and money to Tyler and Michelle.

ALL of the food was donated, which included pasta, sauce, salad, bread, meatballs, sausage, beverages and lots of desserts. Those were made by the kind people that are in connection with this family and companies and restaurants like National Coney Island, Andary's, Aldi's, Caramango, Tyson and Stan Ye.

There were lots of people that spent many hours helping to cook, set up, sell tickets, donate baskets, keep the food coming, etc. But, a special thanks to Tyler's Papa Bill and Grandma Didi, to my mom and dad (Cindy and Don), the staff at National Coney (Austin, Sandy, Kyle, Tiffany, Brook, and probably a couple more I'm leaving out) and to our close friends and family...Patty, Cheri, Tammy, Cindy Baca, Dayna, Josh, David and Mary, Aunt Juanita, Uncle Al, Dee Marie, John Tobin, Chrissy, Athena, Dawn, Ellen, Shorty, Cheryl and Terry (and again some I probably forgot to name). 

In the pictures below, you'll also see everyone running around in their Team Tyler gear (donated by Jimmy Nelson) and sporting prayer bracelets for Tyler (donated by Michelle's close friend Kelly's mom).

I'm sure I left someone off the lists above, so again, I'm sorry if I did. We still appreciate you, I just don't have the best memory and didn't write names down.

Thank you again to all of those who attended and donated. We are so very grateful for each and every one of you.

Tyler took a break from treatments over the last couple of weeks because he had made it his goal to enjoy his 19th birthday (to the best of his ability) and to make it to the fundraiser. This strong guy accomplished both of those goals in the same week. We were more than thrilled to see him and Michelle at the fundraiser.

I do want to make one more very special HUGE thank you to a really brave young man, BJ. This is Tyler's best friend and probably the main reason that Tyler made it to the fundraiser. He really wanted to see his friend. Tyler came and stayed for over 2 hours. BJ came and sat by Tyler's side almost the entire time. I couldn't pass by the table without being overwhelmed with emotion. Sometimes, all it takes is a good friend to sit by your side, on your best of days and your worst. Thank you, BJ, for the friendship you have shown Tyler for most of his life, especially this last year. Everyone deserves a good friend like you!

BJ and Tyler

 
Below are some more pictures from a most successful night. Thank you again.

Love,
Team Tyler

Papa Bill and Aunt Tammy

Tyler and his dad, Tim

Some of the youngest members of Team Tyler

Uncle Rob and Lydia

Our other little Team Tyler guys

Tyler, Michelle, Aunt Patty, Aunt Tammy and Aunt Cheri

Chrissy and Tam

Baca selling the 50/50

Michelle's sisters

Me, Blake, Ty and Shellz - looking at the wrong camera :)

Alenna - made 18 duct tape purses which earned $73.10 in donations for Ty

Uncle Don (Master Chef and Social Director)

Dayna manning the bar (and donating all her tips to Ty)