For No Reason

My nephew Jay was shot and killed this past weekend. (some details still being determined)

I’ve been struggling with my feelings and not sure what to do.

He was 46 and our encounters were few over the past 20+ years. For me he will be forever frozen in time as a teenager.

He struggled with and survived a potentially life-threatening illness as a teen. I recall getting the Cleveland Browns – the REAL Cleveland Browns – to sign a t-shirt I could take to Jay in the hospital. I think one of the players called his room to talk to him.

After his hospital stay he came to live with us for a few months of recovery. My memories are then of his purple underwear (going through a “Prince” phase”), always wearing a knit hat to bed to keep his hair in place and “whatchamacallit”; his favorite word as a placeholder for when he couldn’t think of what to call something.

A few years before that, he, my brother-in-law Charles, and I spent a few days camping in Big Meadows along Skyline Drive in Virginia.

I’ll try to hang on to those good memories as I think of him the next few days.

R.I.P. John Jay Robles and condolences to his daughter, sister, brother, mother, father and extended family.