A Tale of Two Justins....A Tribute

Two young women lived in Utah, both named Sherrie. Sherrie T. and Sherrie A. Sherrie T. gave birth to a boy, whom she named Justin back in the 70's. He had a serious heart defect, had open heart surgery as a baby. Just after that, Sherrie A. gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Thinking that her friend's son would not survive, she named her own son Justin. Justin T. did survive, though he eventually underwent a heart transplant.The Justins became best friends like the Sherries, their moms. They were inseparable, getting into the usual goofy trouble young boys do, but they were both great boys.

In 1992, my husband was sent to Hill AFB with the Air Force, the second time we'd been stationed there. My older son was in high school then and became fast friends with the Justins. My son, who held a brown belt in a Japanese karate, joined the local TaeKwonDo studio where the Justins were studying. They spent lots of time at our house, practicing for the karate demonstrations they did at schools and parks. Our lives revolved around karate during the two years we were there. I even had the boys get their picture made as a group in their karate uniforms, since both Justin A. and my son had earned their black belts. The Justins and my son, Michael, and his other friend, also named Mike, were in the portrait--I called them the Justins and the Mikes. Although there was some danger in Justin T. being hit in the worst place, his mother let him live his life, not wrapped in cotton. I remember Justin T. showing me his very long scar from the heart transplant.

In the high school, they had their gang-like groups, two groups were called the Skaters and the Cowboys. The boys were often hassled on "Cowboy Hall", but they all could defend themselves. Justin T. being much smaller in body had his own insurance against attack. It would seem awful to people today with all the zero tolerance policies, even to ridiculous extremes at times, but Justin T. always had three or four knives on his person at any one time. Once I remember him removing all his weaponry, in his boot, his sleeve, his waistband. His mother knew about his knife collection, but they never had to use it. The boys always exuded confidence as a group and never had to actually fight, though Justin A. told me once that my son was accosted by a group in the hallway and he was just laughing because of what they'd be in for if they really were stupid enough to attack him, LOL.

The Justins would help us with yard sales and were even our movers when we left Utah in 1994. I was so very fond of those boys and those two years were great. We moved back to Georgia as retired military. My son kept up with the Justins over the years. Justin A. married very soon after graduation. Justin T.struggled with health issues, trying to keep jobs, etc. My son would contact them from time to time over the years. Fast forward to about Sept 2008. Justin T. had married, had a daughter, then divorced. My son talked to him sometime around September 2008.
Yesterday, my son called us. He could not find Justin T.'s phone number, but did manage to find Justin's mother's phone number. When he asked for Justin's number, his mother said quietly, "Oh, no, you dont know, do you? Justin had a second heart transplant and he passed away in Oct."

We are all very sad today. Rest in peace, Justin. You will always be remembered with much love.

See Justin's Obituary at the link below. http://www.webfh.com:80/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=203850&fh_id=11049