In Memory of Weston Eli Mitchell

A very close friend of mine, who I grew up with, was killed in a motor vehicle accident last weekend. He was taken to the hospital, but was only surviving on life support. He was brain dead. His parents and family had to make the very tough decision to take him off.Weston was a very young man, only 23 years old. His life was starting, getting under way. And now it was taken from him. I am not a very religious man, but I can say that every person on earth has a soul, some sort of intelligence that resides outside of the physical body. And I know that Weston's soul will carry on after his death. And if there is a gathering place of like minded souls that we on earth consider good and righteous, Weston will find that place and make himself a new home there.Friday, July 30th, 2010 will be when the funeral will take place. I have been asked to be a Pallbearer, and I am honored to take this position for my dear friend Weston, alongside also, with my younger brother Douglas Callahan.On that note...I wrote this piece as a contribution to his memory. It is a few of the memories I had of Weston and Myself while growing up with him.*********************************************************************************Cold Winter SurvivalWeston and I were good pals. Living in the country north of Fort. St. John, B.C, and Weston only a 10 minute drive from our farm, Weston and I became very close friends. Weston, and another close friend, Daniel Court, and I did a lot together.I remember one day for scouts, Weston, Daniel, and I had to do some cold weather survival activity. Daniel had a little cabin he had built out in the woods. Weston and I went to his house, and we spent the night in minus 22 degree Celsius weather. We had brought out hot dogs, bacon, eggs, and other foods.Daniel had a little stove in there he made himself. It kept us very warm, and we cooked food on it. However the roof of the cabin was only a tarp, and the snow started leaking into the cabin as it melted from the heat of the stove. During the night our sleeping bags had froze to the floor of the cabin.Weston, Daniel and I couldn't get out of our sleeping bags right away. I think Weston was the first to get out of his and he helped Daniel and Me get out of ours.Weston and I went back to my house and we let the sleeping bags and the contents of our ruck sacks dry in front of our fire place. The contents of our sleeping bags had gotten wet as well though and actually dumped out in a square block onto the floor.Paint BallWeston and I really loved paintball when we lived in Fort. St. John. I had bought myself a Tippman down in Grand Prairie, and Weston had acquired I think a Spyder. We took our guns out onto the Mitchell's property back by their dugouts, and in the bush and began shooting at each other.Weston's favorite dog Shilo kept trying to bite the paintballs out of the air as they wizzed back and forth. He would catch one then yelp, but for some reason try to catch another. Then he started jumping in front of the balls and got hit a few times. Shilo I think was the only one who got hit that day. Weston loved Shilo.I remember Weston had me pinned behind a tree, and my gun had jammed and he just opened up and I'm hiding behind this big tree out where they kept one of their steers. He kept on firing until he ran out of CO2. I didn't get hit.Pile Of BlanketsThe first couple years I knew Weston we were pretty young. I remember going over to the Mitchell's for supper and Weston and I would be playing. Then our parents would call us because my family had to go. Of course I didn't want to leave, and Weston didn't want me to leave, so we would hide under the stairs to the basement in a big pile of blankets. It would take our parents quite a while to find us, but eventually we would laugh and they would hear us.Zip Lines, Barn Swings, And TrampolinesWeston always had some sort of crazy adventurous idea on how to get adrenaline. When his motor vehicles worked he would zip around on those for a rush, but when things were broken, as for Weston that was the case, he would think of other ways. \I remember one day he took me up in the loft of the barn. We usually ended up there a couple times each time I went to his house. I remember he had a Zip Line set up which ran down to a shed behind the barn. He loved it. I was to afraid to go on it. He would zip down it and yell and hoop, then try to convince me to Zip down as well. I've done zip lines before, but his looked a bit unsafe for my liking. But he enjoyed it.One time we went up there and he had a rope swing set up that hung of the rafters and it had a tire on the end. We would take turns trying to push each other as hard as we could, or we would spin it and wind the rope up so we would get dizzy.Weston loved jumping off stuff onto his trampoline. He had the trampoline set under the loft door one time and he would jump from the loft down onto it. I wouldn't do it of course. One time he had it set up under the graineries by their house and he would jump off the roof onto the trampoline. I did that one and it was pretty fun.MotorsWeston loved engines, and motors. He always had something he was working on or trying to get started. I believe one reason my little brother loves engines so much is because of all the time he spent with Weston on his engines. I remember one day he was fixing some hay equipment after it broke when he was working in the field. He got it fixed, took it back out, and cut the rest of the field.Watching the PlaceWeston, Grandpa Mitchell, and I were in charge of the Mitchell's farm for a week while the rest of the family was gone. We did the chores and made sure things ran smoothly. Weston and I went out to check the cows that were calving and found a cow having some trouble. We pulled the calf. It was born normally, not backwards or anything. The reason why it had some much trouble was because of the size of the calf. The calf was born dead however.This calf was probably the size of a 3 month old calf. It was huge. Grandpa Mitchell brought his truck to the field, we loaded it up and took it out somewhere to dump it off.Sum It UpTo sum it up, Weston and I had a lot of memories together. He was a great friend and someone I really am going to miss. It is so sad, this tragedy that has happened. So young, and getting his life started.I am glad I had just talked to him 3 days before. I was going to save some gas money and drive down to see him so we could catch up. Life got away on us and I haven't really been able to visit with him for almost five years. He had come to our house, but when he was there, I was working on the dairy farm.Now I will be going down to see him for the last time.I hope that these memories I've written down can help keep him living in the hearts of the people that read them.Cuyler Callahan