People more often remember how someone died.
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I want Hans to be remembered for how he lived.
Our dear, sweet Hans died after an accident on a weekend of doing what Hans does best -- having a blast and sharing adrenaline flow! Hans had forever been, with our support, our encouragement, and our vicarious participation, a calculating risk taker. Hans was a loving warrior, but we want our warriors to be risk takers, don't we? Indeed, don't we all take on risks the moment we walk out the door? And Hans lived life with risky gusto! He was an amazing badass, a kitesurfer, rock climber, extreme downhill longboarder, surfer, paddleboarder, marksman, parkourer, unicyclist, slackliner, snowboarder, DJ, mountain climber, offroader, triathlete, mountain biker, drummer, reader, ice climber, comedian, foster brother, our loved and loving son, brother, boyfriend, grandson, cousin, and friend.
Hans was serving our country as he was just finishing his second year at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis (from which his older sister graduated only two months after his death and is currently serving as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps) and planned to serve a full military career as a Naval or Marine Corps officer upon graduation in 2016. His service selection desires and options were completely open: Navy Seal, Navy Pilot, Marine Corps Pilot, Surface Warfare Officer. Hans lived like a warrior and would have been one of America's finest.
Hans researched each of his passions with a passion and when he engaged in it he did it with calculated intensity. On Saturday, March 22, 2014, however, while on liberty from the Academy, and after a full afternoon of perfect kiteboarding and other fun at Assateague Park, MD, Hans and his friends miscalculated. He suffered a devastating brain injury (despite wearing his helmet) after longboarding beside his friend's moving vehicle when the rear wheel of the vehicle came up onto the back end of his board, he was knocked beneath the Jeep and run over. He died a week later on Saturday, March 29. We are thankful for Hans receiving the world's best care at the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center, and bless those who received and will receive his many organs from his earlier decision to be an organ donor.
We have felt and heard and truly appreciate the continued outpouring of love and prayers and know that he has been uplifted in the hearts of our family and friends in Hampstead, on his beloved Topsail Island, all across the U.S. and the world, in places where he has lived and visited, and by his entire and incredible Naval Academy family. We continue to seek peace with the hope that he is in heaven, though he lived every day like it was already heaven on earth.
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Disclaimer: The views expressed here are mine and mine alone. My statements reflect only my thoughts, not of any other grieving parent who may feel completely differently. I don’t post these to feed any narcissism. I post here to share Hans with the world, with people who will never have the pleasure of meeting him, of working with him, of loving him and being loved by him, of sharing a daring and exciting life with him. I post these because I know that some people truly just want to know what life is like for the mother of a dead child. Vicariously living someone else’s pain can help make one appreciate more the good in their own life, and understand better the true pain and grief that comes from an out-of-sequence death. I use the words ‘death,’ ‘died,’ and ‘dead’. It’s what happened to Hans. And we are broken.
Flow with kindness. Flow with love. Shine like Hans.
Remembering Hans Loewen
