In Loving Memory

This day three years ago changed my life forever. A son, brother, friend, teammate, boyfriend, and how many of us referred to him a Super Hero was taken from this Earth way before his time. Justin Lee Whitaker passed away April 7th 2008 the day of his best friend's birthday at the age of 18 our senior year of high school from non-Hodgkin's T-Cell Lymphoma. I visited his grave for the first time when I was home for Spring Break and it brought me back to how I felt this day three years ago.

This is the Justin we all know and love and still remember

Justin passing away was one of my first experiences with someone close to me passing away. I had known Justin since Elementary School we were in the same First or Second grade class. We went to the same middle school then went to the same high school for a year until he transferred to our rival high school. The school he went to a lot of my good friends attended school with Justin so his passing hurt people really close to me. I remember everything I was doing three years ago today. I remember everything that happened at his viewing and at his funeral. They held his funeral in his high school gym because so many people had planned on attending, which they did. At the funeral the people that attended were given bracelets with Justin's name on it and the day he passed away which I have been wearing pretty regularly all this time. It just reminds me that anything can happen and you have to live everyday to the fullest.

I try and wear it everyday

Justin loved baseball and played up until he was physically in too much pain to keep playing. He even tried out for the high school team in the middle of everything he was going through. His love for baseball got him inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Last summer one of Justin's old coaches and the father of a friend of mine wrote a book on Justin's story. It was called On the Seventh Day of April...Superman Died: The Justin Whitaker Story. To everyone that knew Justin throughout him being sick he was our Superman.

Read it in two days and cried my way through it

The people really close to Justin a lot of them incorporated the Superman logo in their tribute tattoos to him. A lot of people I know got tattoos for him...here are a few.

Justin's memory will never fade from any of the lives he touched. We don't just think about him on his birthday or the anniversary of him passing away, we think about him on a regular basis. His legacy will live on for many years. A few years ago at Justin's high school they renamed the baseball field in his honor and put up a memory stone behind the fence of home plate.

You may be wondering about all of the 7 Justin was born on September 7th, passed away on April 7th, wore #7 as his baseball number, and his favorite baseball player Mickey Mantle wore #7. If I remember correctly his school retired the number. Justin's girlfriend/fiancée went to school with my brother and has become really close to my family and being around her keeps his memory alive for me even more.

Last year my little brother put something on his Facebook that I have kept since, "Very rarely do we see super heroes fall. This day 2 years ago we lost a superhero. But is he truly last? His love and spirit still flows through the veins of every person he ever came into contact with. We must remember his kind heart and the jokes that kept all of us laughing. R.I.P. JLW, we miss you Superman."  


I could sit here and go on and on and about what a great guy Justin was and how his life and struggle changed so many lives but I would be sitting here for many hours. I didn't want to share this story to put people in a bad mood, I wanted to share Justin's story so that his story and legacy will carry on even through people he has never met. 


We miss and Love You Superman R.I.P Justin Whitaker...Like the Micahel Jackson song "Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight. Here one day, gone one night"

Sorry this post is so long and has so many picture, but I hope you all can get an idea of how much of an impact Justin has had on my life.