Wyatt's Memorial Service

My sweet baby grandson passed away unexpectedly last Sat. His viewing and memorial service were held earlier this week. I was able to write up and share some memories of Wyatt and those he touched, and my dad was able to share some words of comfort. We sang several hymns including "Lead, Kindly Light," "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam," "This Little Light of Mine," "I Am a Child of God," "Families Can Be Together Forever," "Nearer, My God to Thee," and "I Need Thee Every Hour." At the end, we released 64 balloons to commemorate the 64 days that he lived. It went as perfect as a memorial service could.

Memories of Wyatt:

 Wyatt Haydes Quintana was born Feb. 15, 2013 at 2:30 am to James and Melynda Quintana on his Grandma Donna's birthday. He weighed 5 lbs 9 oz and was 19 ½ inches long. He was a perfect, beautiful baby with his daddy's blond hair.

From the moment of his birth, he was surrounded by friends and family who loved him. In addition to his parents, he was blessed with two older brothers, Jason and Jesse who adored him! He was lucky to live next door to his Grandma Donna and Grandpa Vino Quintana and to have numerous cousins, aunts, uncles, and other loved ones near by. He was Grandpa Vino's “little big man” and brought joy to the entire family.

He had a wonderful, happy personality and beautiful, frequent smile. He started smiling much earlier than he was supposed to. He loved attention and did his best to make sure everyone was always paying attention to him. He loved to reach up and hold onto his mom's hair.

Through last Wednesday, he seemed perfectly healthy and happy. Thursday morning, his dad found him not breathing and unresponsive. James rushed him next door to Grandma's house where Donna did CPT and brought his body back to life. He was taken by ambulance to the Twin Falls hospital and then life flighted to Boise. He was in critical condition and the doctors and nurses worked hard to save him. Over the next three days, those who loved him watched with roller coaster emotions as he beat one challenge after another. Doctors determined that there was a problem with his digestive system and performed exploratory surgery to find the problem, which ended up being that his colon had died as the result of C diff and E Coli bacteria. They removed 2/3 of his colon on Thursday and did another surgery on Friday morning to remove the rest.

Because of his critical condition, he could not be transported to the operating room, and both surgeries were done in his regular hospital room, a first for most of the doctors and nurses participating. There were other procedures done to Wyatt that had never been done on a baby that young and small, including the vacuum device on his stomach and dialysis on his kidneys, both of which were very successful.

I talked to the surgeon yesterday and she wanted to reaffirm how much they had learned from little Wyatt and how that knowledge will save not only other babies needing dialysis or a stomach vacuum, but other patients as they now know they can do surgeries outside the operating room successfully. He will touch and bless the lives of many, many people for years to come.

During the time Wyatt was fighting to live, he also healed many broken relationships. Contact was reestablished with friends and relatives who had not spoken in a long time. We can honor Wyatt's life by doing all we can to maintain those relationships and build on what he started.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were touched by Wyatt as they read his story on Facebook, prayed for him, and held their children a little closer. He may have also save his little cousin who tested positive for C diff and is on antibiotics.

In the end, while his body was being healed, doctors learned that his brain had died from the lack of oxygen and determined nothing else could be done. It was time for him to return home to his Heavenly Father. He passed away at 8:50 pm on April 20, 2013. He was 64 days old.

Melynda and James offered to donate his organs, but fortunately, there was not a baby needing them at that time.

Wyatt's life was only 9 weeks, but the lives he touched and will continue to touch cannot be numbered and will last forever.

Wyatt's full name, Wyatt Haydes Quintana means, “light in the darkness.” He truly lived up to his name and was a light to those around him. His light continues to shine as a beacon, leading us back to Heavenly Father again.

Thank you Wyatt for blessing us with your light! You will be forever missed, always loved, and never forgotten. We love you!

Words of Comfort:

The scriptures teach us that before we were born into this life we lived

in a pre-earth life or a preexistence. In this preexistence there were

basically 3 groups. I will tell about the middle group first because that

is the group that all of us here today were a part of. This group were

pretty good people who generally did as our Heavenly Father or God

wanted us to do but sometimes we wavered. So we come to earth

to get a body and to prove to Heavenly Father that we will keep his

commandments.

The third group would not do what Heavenly Father wanted so they do

not get to come to earth and get a body.

The first group is the group that Wyatt is a part of, these are the

ones who were very very good so they do not need to further prove

themselves. They just need to come to earth to get a body then they

can go back to live with Heavenly Father. At the resurrection they will

be reunited with their bodies which will be perfect. Wyatt is promised

that he will go to heaven.

So Wyatt came here and got a body, then he was ready to go back

to God. When his soul or spirit left his body and went to the spirit

world he was greeted by family members who were already there.

He was greeted by his uncle Jason, his cousin Jesse Driesel, who both

passed away as babies, his Aunt Amber, his Aunt Tina, his great great

grandpas Jack and Duane who passed away on the same day 26 years

ago. We know this from people who have had near death experiences

and have come back to tell us that they were met by family and friends.

They tell us that they were very happy and it was very peaceful their,

and I know that Wyatt is happy and is being well taken care of and that

he is just waiting for the rest of us to join him.

As I prepared these remarks I kept coming back to the idea of what

would Wyatt want me to say. So after much thought and prayer there

are 3 things that I know Wyatt would want me to tell you.

1. James and Melynda, he would want me to say thank you for

giving him a body and for loving him.

2. He would want me to tell you that his passing away was neither

one of yours fault so please do not blame each other for his

leaving and please be kind to each other and love each other.

3. The last thing he would want me to say to everyone here is to

please live our lives so that we can all be with him after this life

is over. He will be with Heavenly Father and he wants us to all be

there with him.