april 5th, 2011

april 5, 2011.

if there has ever been a day- out of my 17 years of life- that I could go back and erase…. it would be April 5th, 2011.

Homecoming dance of my sophomore year, Garrett asked me to the dance. I wasn’t 16 yet, but I figured if his mom was my YW president… and my mom was the 1st counselor… I’ll break the rules. I didn’t personally know anybody that was to be in the group, but I had most certainly heard of them. (they were the “popular seniors” of WX.) Saturday morning we were scheduled to go laser tagging. Garrett comes to my front door, picks me up.. and I get in the car. in the back seat was the very well known Katie and gates- a “cheerleader/ football” dating couple. trust me… every single girl at wx… knew who gates was. little did I know.. but gates would end up becoming one of my very true friends. swim season started before football season stopped, so he was late joining our team. did I mention… he was both the star of the football team… AND OF THE SWIM TEAM?

once he started coming to swim practice… we got to know each other a lot better.

the first day of second semester of my sophomore year, was like any other first day of a second semester. I walked into my math class and took a seat. five minutes after the tardy bell rang… gates walks in looking like a Abercrombie model. feeling like an idiot, I look around… all the seats are empty next to me. “well…. if he didn’t think I was a loser already… take a look at how many empty desks are around me..” I thought. without another thought I say “gates! come sit over here!” I’m SO grateful for that day and the fact that he was in my math class. from that point on.. every math day was unforgettably fun. - notes passed back and forth with knock knock jokes on them -COUNTLESS times of throwing goldfish in the air and then catching it in our mouths. J - little drawings of stupid and funny things -so much talking that I’m surprised I didn’t get a U in that class. in fact, if you have ever met me, you know that I wear a silver locket around my neck..EVERYDAY! there was never anything in it… so gates decided to draw a TINY picture of me and him. it’s two stick figures that says gates + Ciera = forever. and on the back he had wrote to never take it out of the locket. it had all just been a joke. we were flirtatiously just friends. nothing more. the fun didn’t just stay at the school though. every other night I was up at gates’s mansion of a house. math nights. I took my notebooks, calculator.. and pencil every time. I averaged being up there for about 4 hours every other night. roughly 17 hours a week? out of those 17 hours… probably 1 hour was spent doing math. the rest consisted of talking and laughing and… ping pong. I became familiar with his parents- Brian and Cheri. and his little sisters and brother- Gentry, Reese, and Avery. they were the perfect family. His dad was a retired NFL player from the Seattle Seahawks. his mom was a retired employee from Delta. (just like my mom! me and gates planned on traveling together but never ended up doing anything about it.) his little sister was a cheerleader, and gates basically had EVERYTHING going for him.

Gates was 18 his entire senior year. technically, he should have been the first one of his friends to leave on a mission. his parents were avid Utah state fans and convinced him to stay home from a mission until he had completed a semester at Utah state. no big deal! right? he put in his papers as soon as the semester was over and got called to baton rouge Louisiana – Spanish speaking mission. the Saturday before his farewell, gates went skydiving.

on march 27th, was gates’s farewell. luckily I got there early with a row of the WX swim team. there were probably 60-70 of his fellow friends there. so many- that some were required to sit up in the stands and stand in the back. It was incredible to see how so many people cared for this kid. garret was asked to sing a solo to gates’s favorite hymn “if you could hike to kolob.” it brought the spirit very strongly. then gates got up, with tears streaming down his face.. and thanked his best friend for singing that hymn for him.

gates’s bore his testimony of the church, and it was very tenderhearted. after sacrament meeting, I walked up to gates- gave him a huh- told him I loved him- and said “make the next two years memorable.” how I wish that that was the ending of my story. missionaries always leave on a Wednesday to enter the MTC. the Wednesday directly after that Sunday- was not his departure date. instead, he was to leave the Wednesday after the general conference Sunday.

the Tuesday before he were to leave, him and his best friend headed up the mountain to snowboard for gates’s last time for two years. they had figured “go big..or go home.” they built a jump over a river awaiting bellow. gates went first. he didn’t make it and ended up landing on his head in the river below.

garrett became a hero that day. getting off the cliff an into the river, garrett grabbed gates carefully and tried gently to get him out of the river. luckily garrett has had many experiences in lifeguarding to know that a spinal injury was possible. suffering from hypothermia, rescue came quickly. a miracle occurred by gates’s phone not being touched by the river of water they were just in. garret called 911 and requested for life flight. his unconscious best friends fait was in his hands.

with my busy life, I of course was on a airplane while this story had made breaking news to the local news casting stations. Margaret called my mom as soon as we had landed for our trip to California. we were still on the plane, and my mom answered the phone. my mom grabbed her chest and I could immediately tell something was wrong. gates had been in a life changing accident- the day before he was to go to the mtc!

unbelief. upset. confused. frustration. sadness. love. helplessness. = just a few of my emotions.

gates had been paralyzed.

after letting the news settle in for about an hour. (which it STILL hasn’t settled in, fyi.) I called a few of my close friends- who I had doubted heard the news. when I explained what happened- the other side of the line went blank. I never want to give bad news like that again. the next day, thanks to facebook- everybody fasted and prayed. many people didn’t have the intense amount of information that I had- given that it was told to us by the mother of the son that had saved gates’s life… that night I didn’t sleep. tossing and turning and thinking back on all the memories.

about this time- last year- gates and garrett were going to a basketball game. garrett was driving- with a suspended license. something happened had they ended up getting in a car crash- although it was not their fault. garrett was knocked unconscious and gates pulled garrett out of the drivers seat and into the passenger seat. it might not have been the legal thing to do- but gates took blame for driving that night.

I can earnestly say that I have never fasted and prayed so hard in one day. back in bountiful (I was in California) there was a mass prayer at a friend’s house- which nearly 60 people had participated in. his name was entered into the temple- so complete strangers could pray for him. my aunt and uncle- who live in Iowa- entered his name into the temple. and they don’t even know gates! they just know that he was a friend of mine- and I’m so grateful for my families support through this all.

this is about as much as I can manage to write today. please read the blog posted below- it’ll make you cry. there lies the absolute miracles of the whole ordeal. http://gateshopeandmiracles.blogspot.com/

gates: stay strong. I love you! you can pull through this and the whole world is confident in you. every single one of your friends hasn’t stopped thinking of you. we’re all here for you and will stay here for the rest of your life.