Know that I love you

by Anne M. Lapine

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998

On March 7, 1998, our son Jeremy David Lapine was taken off of life support.

Three weeks prior to this date, he was afflicted with ALTE. Because of quick response times from the police and fire departments, as well as the emergency room personnel, Jeremy was resuscitated, stabilized, and transported to Boston Medical. It wasn't until two weeks later that we learned that Jeremy had suffered massive brain damage and that we needed to decide whether to keep Jeremy on life support, or put him into God's hands.

We put our trust in God.

Jeremy has an older sister, Samantha May Paradis. Quite often, she spends nights with her father or goes off with her grandparents for weeklong visits. Whenever she goes away, I would tell her "No matter whom you are with, or what you are doing, or where you are, remember that I love you. If I don't hear from you, or I can't talk to you on the phone, I will know that you are having fun."

The night before our son was to be taken off of life support, I whispered these words to in his ear.

Dear Jeremy,
Tomorrow we put you in God's hands.
I pray that you will be released from your prison
Quickly and quietly.
(Please, God, do not let him suffer.)

Jeremy, I hope you can hear these words.

No matter where you are,
Who you are with or
What you are doing,

I love you,

and I know you love me.
We won't be able to hug or kiss,
or talk to each other about our day,
but when we see each other again,
(and I know we will)
we will cry and hug
and then we will sit down and catch up on the time we have missed.

So, be a good boy, now.
I love you Jeremy David.
Peace be with you.

Anne M. Lapine
In memory of Jeremy David Lapine 1/8/98-3/7/98