This Thursday, I attended the funeral of an 18 year old little boy named Joe.  He lived across the street from us here in Friendswood and was Weston's best friend for many years.  I always called him my “second son”.  He was over here almost every day and night for a lot of years.  About two years ago I noticed that Joe had stopped coming over, so I asked Weston why Joe never came over any more and he told me that Joe had started drinking, doing drugs and hanging with the wrong crowd so Weston quit hanging with him.  Weston and some of his friends tried to tell Joe that it was wrong to do the things that he was doing and that he needed to quit hanging around with the kids that were doing drugs but he just wouldn't listen.

You may have heard on the news that last Saturday at around 3am three teenage friends were arguing over a ten dollar debt and one of the kids was stabbed and died.  The teen that died was my little second son.  The three kids were all from Friendswood so the community here is all in shock.  Joe's Dad asked me to share this story in hopes that maybe something good would come out of all of this.  He is hoping that maybe other kids will learn from this and not turn to drugs and alcohol.

The three friends had been out on the town drinking and while headed home, two of them began arguing about the ten dollars.  They pulled the car over and two of them started to fight.  A kid named Matt pulled out a knife and stabbed his friend Will in the arm.  Joe was sitting in the car and at this point got out and tried to stop the fight.  Matt stabbed Joe in the stomach.  Joe died in the ambulance on the way to Ben Taub Hospital.

Joe's Dad told me that Joe had been really trying hard over the last three weeks to change his life and had gotten off the drugs and had been making real progress.

It was very sad at the funeral to see so many teens there in various emotional states.  Weston and I walked up to Joe's casket together and it was so hard to see my little Joe lying there and my son beside me with tears running down his cheeks.

Matt is in jail.  Will (who was stabbed in the arm) was at the funeral.  Weston overheard Will and some other kids saying that after it got dark, they were going to go get a bunch of alcohol and go out to Joe's grave and get drunk.  They said they would have one for their friend Joe.  Weston was so shocked.  He couldn't understand how they could be so stupid when alcohol was part of the reason that Joe was dead and that he sure didn't think Joe would want them to be doing that.  He said that those kids were just using it as an excuse to get drunk.  I told Weston that I agreed and that I was very proud of him for the decisions that he has made in his life.  As Weston was growing up, I used to tell him all the time to be a leader and not a follower.  He really took it to heart and has lived his life that way.

Going through the death of my little Joe really woke me up about a lot of things.  It made me even more aware of how teenagers really need a lot of attention and guidance.  My home has always been the place that the kids come to.  Weston has hardly ever spent the night at a friend’s house or ever spent much time at their houses at all.  I've worked hard to make my house the fun place to come and of course the safe place.    It was at times a little frustrating to always be cooking and feeding so many kids but yet I knew it was the right thing to do and I always knew where Weston was (at home and not somewhere else) and who his friends were.

I wanted to share little Joe's story and the other things with you so that we can all be more aware of what things we can do to help our teens out there.  Sometimes we get so busy with all the other things in our life that it's easy to lose focus on what is really important....family and friends.  Let's all work hard to help our teens.  They are faced with many challenges and they need us.  I want to be able to see our teens happy and alive!!  I pray that I never have to stand at another child’s casket and reach out and touch his cold hand and whisper to him that I love him.....