Last week was Jessie’s 29th birthday. We found her magnetic nametag in a file at the clinic — we believe it has been tucked away there in the dark for 12 years. She used to wear it to community events, when her and Mel represented CWG and told people all about chiropractic. It was so great for your dad, Buck, to have you working on the same team, even for just a little while. He’s as proud of Jessie today as he was all those years ago, even if she’s been tucked away in the dark for a long time too.

You come up often in conversations with patients at The Chiropractic & Wellness Group in West Allis. A few of them still remember you as a toddler, after day care, playing on the floor in the 90’s.

“I always loved to have you at work with me. Somehow you were never a problem. Couldn’t get enough of you. Maybe we both sensed somewhere deep inside that our time together was limited.”— Buck, Jessie’s dad.

So many memories. So much life, and love.
And so much stolen away from us. From you.

Your dad won an award last month. Hartford still remembers you; the town is very proud of your project. It has affected people deeply. Your dad gets lots of attention and praise for forgiving your killer. Doesn’t seem quite right sometimes. You were the one who fought so fiercely for your cause and then gave it all.

We wonder what else we’ll find tucked away as your dad cleans out his office. He retires from chiropractic practice next month. Mixed emotions of course, he still loves chiropractic and the patients dearly (especially the ones who let him talk about you), but mostly joy and excitement for the future, the chance to focus solely on your mission and have a better work/life/play balance. Except, life isn’t balanced. It hasn’t been balanced since July 15th, 2013, the day the thief came to kill, steal, and destroy. It will never balance again in this lifetime. You’re still gone.

But how blessed are we, and all of us who listened, when you showed us through the unbelievable and unexplainable subtlety and power of an odd butterfly that this lifetime isn’t it, that your dad and you aren’t done forever, and that in fact you’re still fighting with him for your cause. But now you fight from a completely different place, a place of profound Peace, great Love, and unimaginable Forgiveness.

Thank you, Jessie. Buck thought he was supposed to be the dad, teaching you things. How wrong he was. How much he’s learned from you. If the reincarnation-ists and the Past-Lifers happen to be right and we’ll have another go-around, he says he’ll owe you big-time, and it will be his turn to give it all up so you can have the beautiful life that you have given me.

We love you forever Jessie-in-the-Middle. See you on the golf course this summer, when the butterfly visits.