Garrett Leon McConnell

 Why did you have to go?  I just can't breathe without you here.  I miss you so much! 

This is not a memory, it is more of a feeling.  I miss you more with each passing day.  When I look at your pictures, it just doesn't seem real that you are gone.  It has been so hard living without you.  If only I could talk to you, it would give me so much peace, but i know that you are gone and there is nothing I can do to bring you back.  Your memory lives on with me in every way.  I love you Garrett.  Love, Mom

I can't remember when it first began, but for as long as I can remember, Garrett LOVED music!  From the time he woke up in the morning until he went to bed at night, he listened to music.  All kinds of music, Rap Music, R&B, Soul, sometimes it would be the music that was played when I was growing up, I never could figure out why he liked some of it.  He loved to listen to Phil Collins, which i always thought to be funny, because his typical favorite was Rap......with artists like Snoop Dog or TuPac!  But he would listen to almost anything and knew every artist and every song, and ALL the words to every song.  It used to drive me crazy, I would turn it down, he would turn it back up, this went on for years!  He later loved artists like Jamie Foxx and Mariah Carey, he seemed to enjoy the love songs and ballads more then the anything else.  I remember how he would play the same song over and over when he liked it - it would drive me absolutely insane.  I later learned that he didn't do it to drive me insane, he did it to his friends too. Garrett was something special to everyone that he knew.  I remember most the songs that he would sing to me though, the Lionel Ritchie songs, the R Kelly songs.......how I would love to hear him sing to me again.  One of my fondest memories is of Garrett asking me to dance with him.  We (he, his friend Audrey and myself) decided to go out one night when he was feeling good, we went to the little bar next door, they had a dance floor and Garrett asked me to dance.  I didn't want to at first but I remember thinking how special it is for your son to want to dance with you, so I did.  He was something special.  Now I cry at so many songs that remind me of him.  So many memories of someone so very special and i was lucky enough to say that he was my son.  If only I could go back in time, there are so many songs that I would listen to with him.  My son, my hero.  I miss you. 

Some of my favorite memories are from Garrett's phone calls.  I lived and worked in Baltimore, MD and Newark, DE..........shortly after he graduated high school.  Then he moved to California to be with his girlfriend (Nikki / Hope) so we communicated via telephone for many years.  He would call me every day (unless he was getting in trouble :-)  , I would call him every day.  When i picked up the phone, he would many times sing to me a Lionel Ritchie song..........Hello, Is it me you're looking for......and it would make me smile immediately.  He did that for years, along with the calls where he would pretend to be someone else, trying to sell me something or acting ridiculous!  We would talk about nothing or everything, depending on what was going on.  I can still hear him say, Hey Mom, let me call you back, I gotta test drive.  And he would always call me back.  Then he would call Mamaw and talk to her for awhile.  He loved to talk on the phone.  I would give anything to have just one more call, with one more song or joke!   I still have his old phone # stored in my phone, it will never be removed.  I kept it active for a while but I finally let it go.  I do still have his old cell phones with pictures and messages.  I miss those calls so much.  I miss my Garrett so much. 

I wouldn't take anything for that brief moment in time when Garrett and I slipped away from everyone else and shared a few precious moments together at the pier in Santa Monica a few years ago.  Priceless!  
Garrett will always be in my heart and a source of inspiration to me which is why I'll be trotting for him in the Turkey Trot this year!  Garrett's Aunt, Sevella Mostella

I knew Garrett when I was 19. We met through a call center where we worked together. He was an awesome person with an amazing soul. Anyone who knew anything could feel it. I am 33 now and recently heard of Garrett's passing and it was as shocking as it was painful. I have been a radiation therapist for 7 years treating cancer and it never makes it any easier when you hear anyone let alone a great person and friend has died from it. RIP brave Garrett. We all Love you.

Es mi deseo transmitir un pensamiento de reconfortante sacado de la Sagradas Escrituras,en su propio ejemplar Biblico en el libro de Juan capitulo 5 versiculo 28 y 29 escribe:No se maravillen de esto porque viene la hora en que todos los que estan en las tumbas conmemorativas saldran¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Cuando hay sentimientos de dolor y pena por un ser querido que a muerto son ciertas las palabras del señor Jesucristo cuando dice:en Juan 17 versiculo 3 escribe:Esto significa vida eterna el que adquieran conocimiento de Ti y de tu hijo Jesucristo,efectivamente de cuanto valor es el conocer la esperanza que Dios da en su palabra santa,la Biblia.

Poe fabor si desea mas informacion de esta esperanza dirijase al siguiente enlace http:// w.w.w.j.w.org. 

There are far too many memories of and with Garrett t only post one.  Never has an individual impacted my life so deeply and in such a short period of time.  You were my best friend, my Ace and my brother.  I will always remember and cherish ALL of the amazing, life changing times we experienced together.  I know that I will see you again....until that day may God continue to comfort and strenghten your family and friends.  Gone, but never forgotten...Love you bro!

My deepest condolences.  May these few words from the Holy Scriptures bring you comfort in your time of grief...

John 11:32-45

32 And so Mary, when she arrived where Jesus was and caught sight of him, fell at his feet, saying to him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping and the Jews that came with her weeping, groaned in the spirit and became troubled; 34 and he said: “Where have YOU laid him?” They said to him: “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus gave way to tears. 36 Therefore the Jews began to say: “See, what affection he used to have for him!” 37 But some of them said: “Was not this [man] that opened the eyes of the blind man able to prevent this one from dying?”

38 Hence Jesus, after groaning again within himself, came to the memorial tomb. It was, in fact, a cave, and a stone was lying against it.39 Jesus said: “TAKE the stone away.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him: “Lord, by now he must smell, for it is four days.”40 Jesus said to her: “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 Therefore they took the stone away. Now Jesus raised his eyes heavenward and said: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 True, I knew that you always hear me; but on account of the crowd standing around I spoke, in order that they might believe that you sent me forth.” 43 And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice: “Laz´a·rus, come on out!” 44The [man] that had been dead came out with his feet and hands bound with wrappings, and his countenance was bound about with a cloth. Jesus said to them: “Loose him and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews that had come to Mary and that beheld what he did put faith in him;

Please go to the following link for more information regarding the Hope expressed in this passage

http://www.jw.org/finder?locale=en&docid=1102013500&prefer=lang 

You were always very special, from the time you learned to walk
I was so excited when you began to talk
I have so many memories, I was always making plans
Right before my very eyes, YOU became a man! 

I'll forever be so thankful to have a son like you
I remember how you gave your all in everything that you do
Some day I'll come to join you, when my work down here is done
I promise you I'll be there,
My Hero, My Son

We'll stroll beside the river
We'll see the streets of Gold
We'll talk about the good times
We had in days of old
I know in that fair city
A Crown of Life you won
You'll be forever with me
My Hero, My Son