Remarks at the committal of James Geiger
Marina and I just have a very few words to share with you, our dear friends and family, on this sad day when we gather to bury our beautiful little boy James.
James entered our lives at 1:26 AM on Friday, June 15, three minutes after his brother Sebastian. Despite the diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, he declared himself a strong little boy, very much a fighter, and he surprised us coming in at 4 pounds 9 ounces -- two ounces heavier than his older brother.
Yet that strength proved illusory, and as it ebbed, so did our dreams for James.
Some of you know of the terrible road we were forced to travel during James' too short life, which ended at 11:11 PM on Thursday June 21.
We had him at the best children's hospital in the world, Sick Kids, and in the care of the finest health care professionals in the world.
Yet we were still presented with a situation that no parent should ever have to face, and decisions that no parent should ever have to make, especially as it concerned a life just born, and so full of promise.
We cannot but help ask ourselves. Why this boy?
We seek the comfort of our faith. But still we ask ourselves: Lord, why this little boy?
What could this innocent life have done to have deserved such a fate: To have received the gift of life, and then have had it snatched back so soon, and frankly, so cruelly?
And we think of the things that we can now never know: What would James Geiger have made of his life? What kind of journeys would he have undertaken? How would he have loved? How would he have lived, had he been given that chance?
There are no answers to these questions. Only a terrible void, a pain that we will carry all of the rest of our lives. That, along with the memory of a beautiful little boy dying in our arms.
And yet, do we regret our James? Do we regret for one moment his birth? No we do not.
What a strange thing is love. For we did love James. We loved him as much as any one can be loved. And we loved him all the more knowing that we would only ever be able to give him that love for a little while, a few hours really. Of course, we love him still and he will always reside in our hearts.
Goodbye darling boy.
-- John Geiger
James Geiger Day 4