Brian Spencer

Over a week ago, a friend of mine from High School, Brian Spencer, past away. He was part of a close knit group I had in high school, then he actually went to school in BG. It was one of those groups where all your friends parents knew your parents...and where you experience all types of situations together. He was part of that. Spencer was actually an interesting guy, he was in choir, plays, and musicals with me. He was a big part of my high school life actually. He was there through it all. Lots of Dairy Queen trips, cast parties...high school memories. He was actually a gymnast and a super healthy guy. I even remember when I started "experimenting" with drinking etc. he was really against it. Eventually, his life changed, he started to party a lot...and at BG I never really saw him. I had actually grown out of that stage mid-bgsu life and I remember specifically it was right before his birthday, late February, when I saw him on Campus. He really looked cleaned up and when I talked to him it seemed as though he was doing really well. I called him on his birthday March 1st, which is a day before mine just to talk. We used to celebrate our birthdays together, along with another friend. Oh I remember the triple birthday, I barely knew him and his best friend my freshman year of high school...and they put my name on their birthday cake. We celebrated the year after also. Anyhow, it wasn't much longer after that day when I found out he was doing back flips on a trampoline, waiting to go to a birthday dinner with his family and girlfriend, when he fell on his neck and became paralized from the neck down. In one swift moment, he was a quadrapalegic. My friends, Nathan Baker and Brian Gerhardstein and I went to see him in the hospital. He couldn't talk on his own, he couldn't breathe on his own...and there he was. After that I saw him every now and then, with the support of his family, technology, and something within him he pressed on with life. He didn't become a saint, he stayed himself. He went to school, he went to parties, he came and visited his friends in Dayton. He did, put a few more handicapped parking spaces in BG...and he was an inspiration...because his personality was still the same. No one could possibly imagine what he went through. And even still, it blows my mind to think about it. To go from living, walking, breathing...let alone being a gymnast...to depending on people and machines to get through everyday life...it's inconceivable. It makes me thankful of course, the fact that I'm healthy and fortunate to be this way. Also, it makes a person reflect on what God gives us, daily. And also, what he allows to happen, and sometimes we have no answer for that. I can't answer the questions of my old high school friends, "why did this happen to him, why did God allow it to happen?" And it's hard to know I can't answer that. Because I know God is good, and I know he is sovereign. However, why hurt and tragedy in the world is allowed...is in his plan...and it's something none of us will ever be able to comprehend. It doesn't stop me from praising God. For praising him for Brian Spencer's life. Or, for thanking him because he gave Brian the ability to carry on. I just hope, that his soul was ready to go. And it seems Spencer's gift to his friends and family, was hope. In any situation, there is hope. To be yourself and carry on no matter what you are going through. His second gift, reuniting some old friends, and the joy of some great memories. When I went home for his funeral...so much was rekindled. I saw faces and heard voices that hadn't been familiar in years. And it was comforting to go through the process, with people who once knew me and knew him well. And now, we've all recognized, the importance of staying in touch...because you share your time with people...you share your life with people...and its important to not forget that.