Losing Judd

J udd and his wife Nicki had just moved from our house to their own place, in a small town an hour from us.  He had gotten a job at a grocery store as the assistant manager and was very good at it.  One night when he was closing up the accounts for the store, he called the manager to report that the books weren't coming out right and would he please come and check things out.  The manager was busy and planned to go later.  While Judd was waiting for the manager, he finished up taking out the trash, checking the bathrooms, etc.  While he was in one of the bathrooms, someone jumped down from above the ceiling tiles and attacked him.  Judd knew who the man was(a co-worker) and tried to talk to him.  The man kept attacking him, chasing him all over the store and beating him as he went.  Judd was an average size man(5'8"or so) and the man was over 6' and huge.  finally the guy locked him in the freezer and finished him off.  We were told later the guy said"He just wouldn't stop fighting.  I wanted him to stop fighting.  But he wouldn't give up."  The guy was robbing the store and that's why the books wouldn't come out.  He was hiding so he could take food out of the store.  He killed my son so he could get away.  But he didn't, he was caught and is in jail now.  He got the 'hard 40' because he locked Judd in the freezer and that was considered 'kidnapping' 

We are all changed by this loss.  We don't trust god anymore, we find it hard to love or believe, for fear of losing again. We had to have 2 services for Judd, one here and one in the town where he was living, both services were totally overwhelming with the number of people who came. Little old ladies came up to me by the dozens to tell me how sweet and helpful Judd had been to them in the store.  He was 24, but every teacher from high school, every student, every friend he ever had who could get there was there.

He was the best of us and all we can do is live so that he would be proud of us.