In Memoriam: Kurtis Carrico

In Memoriam

Kurtis Ray Carrico

Jan. 27, 1990 - Dec. 29, 2012

Kurtis’ Funeral Eulogy

Thursday January 3, 2013

On behalf of the family, and on behalf of Kurtis, I want to thank you all for being here. It means so much to us, and I know it means a lot to him.

(After a pause) You know I do not think that Kurtis could forgive me if I passed up this opportunity to say that I do indeed know what a Eugougoly is.

(Allowing the laughter to calm down from those 30 and younger I continue.)

You may or may not know that Kurtis and I share a birthday, exactly seven years apart; and it was from this very early time that I began to have a sense that it was my job to look after him, to protect him.

This sense was made all the more real when Kurtis got a bit older and he started by coming and climbing into bed with me. That worked for a while, but soon that little twin bed became a bit too cramped for the both of us. So I suggested, and perhaps even helped him the first time or two, that instead of sleeping in my bed he make his own bed on the floor next to mine. So for years it seems he would bring his pillow and a couple of blankets and make himself a bed right there next to mine. This went on for so long that I had to relearn how to get out of bed once he stopped needing to come over to mine. You see I learned to scoot closer to the end of the bed before getting out as to not step on him in the process. With that my need to look out for him grew.

The story that I really believe captures this feeling of needing to protect Kurtis took place when I was probably 12 or 13, Kevin was 10 or so, and Kurtis would have been about 6; and at that time at least I was still a bit bigger than they were – not that that continued for much longer, and certainly Kevin and I were a lot bigger than Kurtis. Well we were down at this park in southern Kentucky that we went too often as a family and the three of us encountered a small flock of geese by the lakeshore and as we walked towards them we ended up pushing them into the lake. (I should have said that Amanda knew better than to get involved with this kind of animal harassment.) Well we, or maybe I should say I, got the bright idea to push a much larger flock of geese, further along the shore, into the lake in the same way. Well geese are vile creatures, beautiful but vile, vile creatures, and there were possibly even a few swans in this larger flock. Equally as beautiful, but even more vile creatures than geese. Well I got on one side of this flock and Kevin got on the other, with Kurtis in the middle, and we began to push these vile creatures into the lake. Well it wasn’t until I heard the screaming and the squawking that I realized that as Kevin and I were walking forward we were actually pushing the geese not into the lake, but towards Kurtis. All I could think was Kurtis is going to get one of his tiny fingers bit off, and I’m going to get in trouble. As the young strategist that I was, I called to Kevin to slowly back away and walk towards Kurtis and the two of us quickly took the pressure off of him. Thankfully he had all of his fingers and did not get bit, but I figured from then on I had to make sure that Kurtis didn’t get bit.   

Well like those geese the world got ahead of Kurtis, which isn’t surprising as he preferred to hang back anyways, and let others go first; and as we were all focused on the world in front of us we didn’t realize that those geese were closing in on him. Kurtis wound up getting bit in a bad way, but none of us saw. We were understandably looking ahead at that flock of geese so to speak, trying to push them into that lake.

I don’t remember right now too many little stories about him, I hope they’ll come back to me in time; but what I do know is that I was always happy to see him and he just made things better in his own, small, simple ways. Kurtis you will be greatly missed.

To mom and dad no parent should ever have to bury their child, especially not like this. (I should have added “I love you.”)

Amanda and Kevin – there were four of us and there are still four just in a different way.

(Here I meant to say: To all of those who were never blessed to have met or got to know Kurtis, well I’m not surprised – he didn’t say too much, and he seemed happy with those he knew; but I still wish you could have known him just a little more, he was funny and I wouldn’t be surprised if he were mocking me right now.)

And to all of Kurtis’ friends, I think he would want me to tell you that he wasn’t scared of the ride, he was just sick, but he’ll be waiting at the end for you all, holding your things and wanting to just be with you.

Let’s hold each other in prayer for the difficult days, months, and years that lie ahead until we can be reunited again.