My Friend

Tricia Shane (Jagt)
Telkwa, BC
Friend from Kings

I checked my inbox yesterday to find an email with the subject, 'Ted Vellenga', and a smile was on my face. I knew that he had recently finished at Calvin Seminary as I saw his picture in The Banner (a CRC publication) because he had become a candidate. Because of that picture, I was finally able to reconnect with Ted after not talking to him for several years. We emailed and I discovered that he had taken a job as a Chaplain in a hospital on the Pediatric floor. Did that ever sound perfect for him! I told him of my little family that I have begun, and he wrote back about how he had grown a new appreciation and love for children since he had become an uncle.

Then I opened the email to discover the horrifying news and was struck back. It was not possible. The most incredible God-fearing and honoring man I had ever met could not have been taken from this earth. He had so many things to contribute and so many lives of which to be a part. Why would God take him?

Ted and I came to know each other at the King's University College. It was summer and I went back home to live with my parents. Ted needed a place to live for those few months and my room back in Edmonton was available. So he moved in with all of my roommates and slept in my bed for the summer. I got to know him over the phone because he always seemed to answer whenever I tried to call my friends. And the relationship blossomed from there!

When I came back after the summer Ted moved in with Rob and Josh and we kept in touch -- I knew I had found a friend I could not do without. He often had me over for lunch after church on Sundays and would make some sort of concoction in his new pressure cooker that he loved so much! He would always be wearing his apron and I would always prepare myself for the house being on the cold side - he never had it warm.

Every meal and every conversation I ever had with Ted was so important, even vital it seemed. Every word that came out of his soft-spoken mouth was so wise and I had to listen to and be affected by what he was saying. I was going through a rough patch myself, and Ted always had the exact right ways of putting things so that I would not feel ashamed, but rather I would feel a strong desire to make sure things would change for the better.

Even though I had lost contact with Ted for a few years, I never stopped thinking about him, praying for him, and loving him. And I suppose I never will. I am so sorry for his family and I send you my prayers. Ted was an incredible man that nobody will easily forget. I am definitely a better person because I knew him.

I also send a special prayer for Ted's father Pete, who lost his mother on that same day. May you feel God's comforting hands wrapped around you at this time.