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Eight Sixteen

  • By: Douglas G. Goldberg
  • Published: August 16, 2019
Eight Sixteen

Most of you know I have three sons. Grant is 32 years old and has worked for GLC for over 16 years. He has done pretty much everything a guy can do at GLC, except give legal advice. He has managed our IT and billing, coordinated our tax filings, and been involved in purchasing equipment and supplies. He has leased our copiers and cars, installed and programmed our phone system and dealt with our vendors. He has been involved in creating our website, written blogs and even drafted some documents when we got swamped. He has organized seminars, managed our database and software upgrades and also visited with many of you personally. And he has done so with minimal training, while graduating from UCCS with a finance degree and while trying to read my mind on a daily basis. He’s a very smart young man with a great wife, two amazing sons. Recently, he went to part time at GLC to focus on growing his Twisted Pines Farm in Black Forest.

Eric will be 30 years old this October and has never worked for GLC. However, he has worked at our office buildings over the years doing maintenance, repairs and artistic things. Eric is the one who made the hammerhead shark that hangs in our office. He needed a humanities credit to graduate from UCCS but, as a former professional soccer player, he didn’t think PE was a good use of his time. His only other option was an art class. It was during this time that he fashioned the shark from 2 x 6 lumber and carved the magnificent creature with a reciprocating saw, or “sawzall,” and presented him to me as a gift. He also painted a grazing rhinoceros on one of my doors and Bullwinkle the Moose on another. He must get that talent from his Mom because, as you all know, I draw boxes and circles for a living. Most recently, Eric has been our Director of Performance at The Arena, our sports performance gym that opened about five years ago. He has a Masters degree, a wonderful wife and a brand new baby girl as of March 2019. Charleigh is the first girl Goldberg in over 25 years!

Trevor is my youngest. He will be 25 next month and is in charge of the GLC website and all things design and marketing. Look at our website, our snazzy, multicolored office wall, and our Welcome Packets, TrustKeeper packages, signs, business cards and letterhead to get an idea of his talent. He also works for his own clientele designing corporate brochures and doing book layout and design. Trevor received his degree in graphic design and marketing from Metro State in Denver while playing  college baseball at Dixie State University as well as Metro State.  In addition, Trevor makes custom baseball bats for players and coaches through his “Berg Bat Company”  and also serves as The Arena’s Director of Baseball. If that’s not enough, he and his delightful wife are expecting the second girl Goldberg in 25 years in December. A very busy and exciting time for them.

Some of you know that I  had a fourth son, Chad Douglas Goldberg. Actually, Chad was my third son born in 1993, a year before Trevor. Today, August 16th, is his birthday. He would have been 26 years old. He was born after a long labor and arrived at 8:16 am. Pretty easy to remember. 8:16 on 8-16. He was the smallest of our boys but healthy and strong with light hair and blue eyes like my wife. Kitsen was a full time mom to Chad, just like the rest of the gang. Grant was 6 and Eric was almost 4 when Chad was born. What a blessing he was! In fact, we had talked about Chad being our last. I’m sure Trevor is happy that he wasn’t!

Unfortunately, Chad didn’t stay with us very long. On December 8, 1993, less than four months after he came into our lives, Kitsen took him to a sitter’s home so she could run some errands. It was only for a couple of hours and the other two boys were in school. A perfect plan. But it wasn’t God’s plan. It wasn’t long before Kitsen received a call from the sitter telling her that Chad had gone down for a nap and did not wake up. The sitter had called 911 and the paramedics were on the way. Kitsen called me at the office and let me know. She met me at the sitter’s house and asked a friend to pick up the boys from school.

The coroner ruled Chad’s death as a SIDS death. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The unexplained death, usually during sleep, of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old.  SIDS is the leading cause of death among infants one month to one year old. Although the cause of SIDS is unknown, it appears that it might be associated with defects in the portion of an infant’s brain that controls breathing and arousal from sleep.  Strange that we can put a man on the moon but we have no idea why healthy babies stop breathing for no reason.

The aftermath of losing a child, albeit a four month old baby, and after 26 years, is still almost surreal. I remember sitting in the front row of the New Life Church sanctuary looking at his tiny, white casket like it was yesterday and, yet, forever ago. I remember holding my wife’s hand for what seemed like days and helping her in the months and years that followed more than I ever had. And I remember Pastor Ted in my living room comforting and praying with all of us. The pain is still sometimes heavy, the grief still sometimes raw.

I found myself wondering who Chad would have been today. Turns out that’s way too many questions for a blog post. Good questions to ask when I get to Heaven. So, I’ll just say, “Happy Birthday, my Son. I’m looking forward to the day you can show me around and we can play catch on one of the Heavenly baseball fields.”