David Kenney

I have had a hard time blogging lately because I wanted to write about this but it’s been too hard for me to write about.  A few weeks ago I got a call saying that my Grandma Hoff (my mom’s mom) was probably not going to make it through the night.  My mom drove up, and and she and I went to visit her.  After we left, we got a phone call saying she passed away an hour after we left.  This was very bitter, sweet.  My mom has always been very close with her mom and so it was very hard on her.  I hate seeing my mom upset, and it was a very emotional, hard thing to go through.  On the other hand, my grandpa had died 2 or 3 years ago (my sense of time is so off, so I’m not really sure) so it’s great that they are together now.  She has suffered from Alzheimer’s and cancer and some other things, so it was also great that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore.  While we were at the viewing for my Grandma, we got the news that my cousin David (on my Dad’s side of the family)  had been in a terrible car accident and had no brain activity and wasn’t going to make it.  It was so hard sitting through my Grandma’s funeral, and also thinking about our close cousin David.  Right after the burial for my Grandma, my brothers and I left straight for the hospital to see David.  It was awful.  He was breathing with the help of a machine, and his head was bandaged up.  There was a lot of family there and we were all just speechless and couldn’t believe what was happening. 

This story is what I understand happened, but there may be a few things that aren’t exact.  Thursday morning, David said goodbye to his wife and two little kids and left for work.  He had just gotten a new little car and was driving and stopped at a light because of a deer in the road.  A truck was driving up behind him and didn’t see David and crashed into his car.  From the impact, David’s brain hit his skull, but the rest of his body was completely fine.  He was in a comma, and had surgery on his brain.  He lost a lot of blood, and he just couldn’t recover because he had no brain activity.  My brothers just happened to be in town for Carter’s blessing that coming Sunday and I am so grateful that they could be here for this hard time.  We spent a lot of time with family that week, and the news was hard to take in.  While together with my extended family, everyone was sharing stories and memories of David.  I never knew how much David touched other people’s lives, like he did mine.  He was a smart, funny, creative, kind person and made everyone feel special.  

David was one of the cousins that worked at our Grandpa’s ranch during the summers with me.  He was in charge of doing the activities with the guests like games, haunted hikes, and barn dances.  He was such a people person, and made everything fun.  I was able to be in a lot of his home videos that he was always making.  One time he went on a trip with me, my brothers, and my dad.  We went to a small town in California and learned how to fly Ultra Lights.  I was too young to fly them, but was actually brave enough to ride in one.  He made one of his videos of that trip too.  David was a part of a lot of my memories with my cousins from the Bodell side (I have A LOT of memories with my cousins!) because him and my brothers were so close, and I always felt that I had a special connection and relationship with him. 

Another time David, my brother Joe and I got in a junky old truck and drove with the Ultra Light in the back from Phoenix to our ranch near Zion National Park.  We were just passed Kanab when the truck broke down.  It was late at night (about midnight) and there were no cars passing us to help us.  There was no cell phone service and we were stranded.  We all looked at each other and wondered if we could possibly turn the motor of the Ultra Light on to help the truck move.  I steered the truck while Joe and David pushed.  Amazingly the truck started rolling and we got the car to start and Joe and David jumped into the truck and we were on our way.  We were laughing so hard and couldn’t believe what just happened and that we got it to work.  When we were about 4 miles away from the ranch, the truck broke down again.  We tried what we had done before but it just wouldn’t work.  We took the Ultra Light off of the truck and decided to ride it the rest of the way.  I luckily had a tiny flashlight in my bag and I sat on Joe’s lap in the back seat while David drove us on the Ultra Light(without the wing) the rest of the way.  Here we were jammed on a tiny, crazy loud machine, with a tiny light driving this silly thing.  When we got there at about 2 am, there were guests out on the lawn, and I’m sure they couldn’t figure out what was going on, or what weird thing drove up in the middle of the night.  Oh man.  Good times. 

The last time I talked to David was pretty cool and special to me.  We were at my Grandpa’s birthday party and him and his wife told me that if they were to have another daughter they were going to name it Dana.  They said that they really liked the name, and David told me that usually when you know a person, they ruin a name and you don’t want to use it for your kid, but that they liked me and I didn’t ruin the name for them. I felt pretty special after he told me that.  :)  I will always remember David fondly and smile whenever I think of him.  I continue to pray for his wife and two little kids.  I cannot even imagine what they are going through, and have so much love for them.