Lev would be 25 today. I'll share one little detail from ten years ago. We went camping right after July 4th, so we bought Lev his birthday presents early. He was into boxing with Tony, so we got him a set of gloves, pads and body protection to go with a punching bag. We shared them with him before we left on our trip, and he was super psyched.
About a month later, Lev was gone and would never use his birthday present. I returned them to Big 5 in Burlington. The return seemed so trivial. I didn't want to ask a friend to return them for me, but I decided I just couldn't have them in the house any more. I drove ten miles by myself, which was a big deal at the time. I rehearsed in my head the response I would say if they asked me if why I was returning it. "They were for my son and he died," I would say, knowing I would then lose it. Fortunately, they didn't ask. They just accepted the return. A few years later I found a neighbor whose child was recovering from Leukemia and wanted to get fit using a punching bag. She understood the significance of the gift and it found a good home.
Every item has so many stories and kids have so much stuff. That's life after losing a teen. Ten years later.
