Eight years ago today will live in my mind forever.

November 19th, 2004.

It was 10PM that night, William was 2 months old and we were living in NYC, he had finally fallen asleep, so I took the opportunity to head to bed a little early that night. I was going to try and wake myself up around midnight because my husband would be turning the BIG 30 years old! I always love ringing in a new birthday at midnight.

As I was getting myself tucked in, my husband walked into our bedroom white as a ghost.

He just stood there and then said, “Dimi’s dead.”

WHAT!? WHAT!? WHAT!?

WHAT.

Dimi Gavriel was my husband’s best friend. They met at Brown University and just bonded, very quickly. Neither one of them had a brother, so in many ways… they each filled that void. Dimi was one of the best men at our wedding. Dimi was THE reason we moved to NYC after graduation. Dimi was my husband’s other half. To fully understand my husband, you needed to know Dimi. They were hilarious together. I remember when we first started to date he brought me to NYC on a surprise trip… little did I know at that time, he was bringing me to NYC to meet Dimi and get “seal of approval!”

Dimi.

He was a great man.
He was a sincere man.
He was a funny man.
He was a smart man.

Most of all… he was a brave and courageous man.

If you don’t know this story already, I want to share for a second…

Dimi worked on Wall Street in NYC after graduating from Brown. After working for years, and doing the daily grind day in and day out… in 2002 he felt he had a higher calling to join the Marines. At 28 years old he quit his job and enlisted. For all of his friends, it left us speechless because he was such an inspiration. We were all so very proud of him. But I will say, we were all very worried for him, too… especially my husband. My husband loved Dimi and just didn’t want anything happening to him. But Dimi knew what he wanted and was sure and ready and happy to defend his country… his parents were both Greek immigrants and he knew how much this country had done for them, he wanted to give back.

He was in Fallejah in the Fall of 2004. I’ll never forget Matt missing a call from Dimi after William was born, it was a beautiful message… one full of utter joy about his best friend becoming a father. Matt has saved that message. It’s too difficult to listen to… even after 8 years, but it means so much to him. He knew about William, that was important to Matt.

November 19th, 2004 was one of the most difficult days we’ve ever had to endure. My husband was in pure shock, and it was way too difficult to process.

Everyone always asks us what we were thinking by having children so close in age.

Well, we were thinking about Dimi.

After his death, we wanted to celebrate life. With William just 3 1/2 months old, in late December, we went to visit Dimi at his grave in Arlington and asked him to send us another baby.

I found out exactly a month later that I was pregnant… and my beautiful Alexander Dimitri was that baby.

My son got a brother… that was definitely Dimi’s doing.

We loved Dimi.

And we miss him every single day.

A great man… but his legacy is being lived out through his friends and his family.