The last time I saw Speedy was a little over three weeks ago. He joined me on a river outing on the South Fork Boise along with some other friends. A few years back I told him he needed a summertime sport like kayaking or rafting. He took me up on teaching him how to roll a kayak. He was such an exceptional athlete who understood physics of body movement. He learned to roll in three attempts. That was it.
How I came to know Speedy was a bit of a quirk. At about the time he made the US Olympic team in 1998, I think it was, I was then the mom of a toddler. I went to watch a US Ski Team event in Moguls at Bogus Basin. Jeret was only 15 or 16 then, and he was the star attraction. This wild pink jacket he wore just cracked me up. "Pink is the new Black", he joked to me as I stood in the lift line with him on his way back up to compete. The kid just effused a mix of cockiness of a 15 year old, and the charm that everyone who ever met him came to know. That little episode encouraged me to keep my eye on him as he matured in his sport. And it led to periodic phone calls, emails and personal contact. When Megan left the ski team after USASA Nationals in 2009 I took the money I would have spent on her and donated it to Jeret to help support his 2010 Olympic bid.
In 2002 when he was awarded the last spot on the freestyle team for the Olympics when Emily Cook was injured, I knew I had to go to Salt Lake and see him in his aerials event.
By then Megan was skiing and the next year she started ski racing. She finally met Speedy in 2007 at a ski team event. Jeret took an interest in her ski "career" when he found out she was competing in Skier X. Not a lot of girls were doing that event. And it wasn't under the onus of the US Ski Association either but rather USASA which was a snowboard organization. When she made it to Nationals in Skier X in 2008 and 2009 he seemed as excited as she and I were. He even texted her before her race in 2009 to tell her "Stay out of the back seat, breathe deep and ski fast!" He always seemed to make time for the little things with other people.
He was the best at whatever he attempted, whether it was skiing moguls, throwing the "Hurricane" (his signature aerial jump), swinging a hammer as a carpenter or earning himself a Dean's list honor at Westminster College where he was working on finishing his degree until fate took a different turn. Click on the blog title for an article from the Idaho Statesman.
Jeret suffered terribly from depression. He seemed to be a poster child for bi-polar with the worst of the symptoms from manic to crawling in a cave emotionally. Having dated someone who was bi-polar I tried hard to encourage him to always seeks help. And he did, regularly and through his closest friends. But it just wasn't enough to take away the pain that chased him each and every day. How he managed to get up every morning and push himself was beyond belief. I wish, as we all do who knew him intimately and from farther afield that he could have been helped. He gave so much joy to so many people it is unbelievable.
Yesterdays Memorial Celebration was a cathartic experience for everyone in the room. I met people in his life many of us not having ever known each other or about each other. But every single one had something special they had shared with Jeret. That's just how it was with him. Dino, a close friend of Jeret's from Park City, sat next to me. I'd met him on the rafting outing. We both wept openly and held each others hand. There was alot of that going around. I'd never seen so many men openly weeping. We shared laughter, grief, tears, and warm hugs. I know the pain won't go away right away for me. I do know the pain for Jeret is finally gone and his energy is swirling in cosmos sprinkling particles of himself upon all of us. I will miss him.
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