Jeremy's story

This blog is about freaque waves -- which is generally keeping an eye on the science and the news about freaque waves. Only occasionally that I get comments here and there. Freaque waves, being unexpected and certainly unwelcome, encounter with it usually resulted in sad human tragedies with infrequent happy endings. In my last post there's a comment left by Mrs. Ruth Earnshaw of Alaska recounting the lost of their son Jeremy in Australia two years ago:

Never thought of freak waves until Father's Day 2008 when we received a call in Alaska that our son Jeremy had an accident. He was working with Youth With a Mission in Australia and he was at the beach that day showing his friends where he wanted to propose. The boys went down to walk on the rocks when a freak wave washed them in...our son Jeremy was never found.

She referred me to a website called onetwentyone.com for details. I actually blogged here two years ago about Jeremy's case shortly after it happened when Jeremy was still considered as missing and the search was still ongoing. Here's my comments made at the time:

The same familiar plot again: walking along coastal rocks when a freak wave washed them away!

The Australian police had already told the parents to “prepare ourselves for the inevitable, that he probably is not alive”. Let our best wishes and prayers be with the parents, miracle can happen and hope it can happen to this family.

Walking along a beach or coastal area is the most enjoyable thing and it can be peaceful and tranquil. Why can't we make it stays that way? We can explore Mars and go to the Moon, but no one cares to do something to make our beach and coast safer for human life. Why?

My misgivings are still the same: no one in the academia and the governments seem to really concerned enough on providing resources to learn more about the happenings even when tragedies happen so frequently. I wish to thank Mrs. Earnshaw for reminding us this tragic case. I was intrigued by the website called "onetwentyone". It is in fact an important part of Jeremy's story:

Jeremy had made numerous trips to Australia since 2003, working with the youth and studying at the Newcastle Youth With a Mission base. As part of his training, Jeremy participated in a mission excursion, working in orphanages in Cairo, Egypt. Before he left for Cairo, Jeremy decided to put a tattoo on his chest of Philippians 1:21, "For me to live is Christ, to die is to gain.”

I am sure that Jeremy is in a much better place now and he'll be continuously pray for us!