Family and Friends of Jerry Chen,

I believe that if a picture speaks a thousand words, then a single memory speaks a thousand times as many. With this, I want to share with all of you, just one of a broad spectrum of memories I was fortunate to have had with Jerry, which I hope will help sprout good memories that you have shared with him as well

I vividly remember the time during my sophomore year in college when Jerry, our group of friends, and I would religiously go to the beach every week. One day, we went to one of the beaches in Malibu, where Jerry and I were lured by the hypnotizing waves to go further out into the ocean.  As we paddled out, we heard some faint cries behind us.  I turn over my shoulder to see two life guards waving their hands frantically to tell us to turn back.  At that moment I look over to Jerry and said,” I think we should turn around man.” Jerry agreed that it was a good idea.  We turned our boogie board around and attempted to paddle back to land, but after what seemed like hours of paddling, we realized that we were stuck in a riptide and that we weren’t making progress in approaching dry sand.  At that time, we didn’t know that we were supposed to swim parallel to the shore to free ourselves.  So we see the lifeguards jump into the water and inch towards us while we continued to paddle while laughing at the fact that our audience was building to a size of a sold out concert and that we were quite a spectacle.  The lifeguards get to about five feet in front of us and asked us if we needed any assistance, but our machismo made us deny their help; we told them that we’re fine and acted as if we purposely gotten ourselves into this predicament.  After what seem like another hour of paddling, the lifeguards threw out their life preservers to our reach and dragged us out of the riptide, where we caught a wave back onto shore.  Upon reaching land, tourists with cameras started taking pictures of us as the crowd applauded.  Embarrassed as I was, Jerry stood up and threw both of his hands in the air, as if he was receiving an encore for an outstanding performance.

We will all miss Jerry’s humorous personality, as he was able to lighten up the direst situations. I had a very hard time understanding how Jerry can just disappear from our lives. It wasn’t until I met up with a few old college roommates that things started to make a little more sense to me.  We were sharing our stories we had with Jerry, when one of our roommates repeated a phrase that Jerry had always said.  At that moment, I felt as if Jerry was there with us.  I came to realize then and there that when a person becomes part of your life, you will inevitably pick up some of their personality, habits, and phrases, to name a few, and integrate it into your life.  Jerry hadn’t just disappeared.  Everything that we absorbed from Jerry, along with the memories we are able to share with one another, allows us to be with Jerry.  He lives in us all, and as long as we understand that, we can keep his spirit alive.

Before I leave, I just wanted to thank you Jerry, for being Jerry.  I can never thank you enough for forging an everlasting friendship for many of us.  I might have not met many of the friends that I consider to be the best of friends today without you buddy, and I can guarantee our lives wouldn’t have been the same without you my friend.  You brought us all together, and again, I thank you for that. We shared our good times, as well as our bad times, but even those times we may have felt wasted with you were truly the times well invested.

Eulogies

Appreciation Remarks from Jerry's Sister......................................................................................................Ms. Andrea Chen

From Jerry's Cousin...............................................................................................................................Ms. Claudia Chen

From Jerry's Girlfriend.................................................................................................................................Ms. Vicki Chin

From Jerry's Friend at Trammell Crow...........................................................................................................Ms. Patti Maude

From Jerry's Friend at Trammell Crow..........................................................................................................Ms. Diana Wyant

From Jerry's Brother of Lambda Phi Epsilon.......................................................................................................Dr. Jack Chen

From Jerry's Brother of Lambda Phi Epsilon.......................................................................................................Mr. Frank Ngo

From Jerry's High School Friend......................................................................................................................Mr. Peter Kim

From Jerry's High School Friend....................................................................................................................Mr. Samuel Lin

From Jerry's Friend at Trammell Crow...............................................................................................................Mr. Ron Heim

Concluding Remarks From Jerry's Father.........................................................................................................Dr. Chao Chen

Back to Eulogy Home