iron man.

This is our good friend Andy.
And his cute wife-also our friend- CJ.
(they have bright yellow ear plugs in because we went shooting together last fall)

They are pretty much the greatest people on the planet.
So down to earth, real, genuine, loving, caring people.
Plus they're just cool.
Steve took me to their house for our first date.
They are big into paintballing.
Awesome, awesome people.

We found out something about Andy last year.
He's Iron Man.
Seriously.
All his life he had a mole in the middle of his chest.
Not a big deal, until late last year it started bleeding.
So they went to get it removed.
and...
Cancer.

The worst stage of melanoma.

Since that day,
the greatest people on the planet have been going through one of the hardest things imaginable.

Back in March/April,
he went through biochemotherapy-the most aggressive kind.

And it didn't work.

The doctors weren't hopeful about doing a second round of treatments,
but they gave him the option.

Together, he and his wife turned it down.

So the doctors gave him a month to live instead.

Andy went home.
He and CJ came up with a schedule to allow for visitors,
still leaving them time to rest and be together.

We did our best to visit once or twice a week.

But after a while we thought it might be best for him to not be so overwhelmed with visitors.

It gets exhausting, emotionally and physically.

Andy lived about twice as long as the time the doctors had initially given him.
And then he went home to his Heavenly Father on Tuesday.
After an amazing fight.

We got to go to a special screening of Iron Man 2 with Andy, CJ and their families back in May on the day it came out.
It was one of the things Andy really wanted to do while he was still around.

As I watched that movie, I thought about these amazing people we were there with.
Being Iron Man isn't about saving the world.
Being Iron Man is overcoming the challenges that being human brings you.
Andy definitely overcame those challenges.
He won his fight.

When we first found out, we wondered why.
Why Andy?
He and CJ are some of the best people we know.
How does this happen to a 25 year old?
Why do they deserve this?
And we realized, that out of anyone we knew, no one would be prepared to meet their Savior more than Andy.
If anyone can make it through this, they can.
Because the Atonement is real.
And families are forever.



May angels lead you in, Andy.
We love you so much.