Yesterday, we lost a member of our gym.<\/p>\n
Truthfully, calling Jeff a member doesn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n
He was a friend.<\/p>\n
A mentor.<\/p>\n
A brother.<\/p>\n
A father figure when I needed one.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve spent most of today trying to figure out what to say.<\/p>\n
Truthfully, I couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I cried.<\/p>\n
I stared at a blank screen.<\/p>\n
I wrote something.<\/p>\n
Deleted it.<\/p>\n
Started over.<\/p>\n
Because how do you summarize someone who became part of your life?<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
You just tell people who he was.<\/p>\n
Jeff used to say:<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people will tell you I\u2019m an asshole. Some people will tell you I\u2019m the nicest guy they\u2019ve ever met. Believe them both.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if you knew him, you probably laughed reading that.<\/p>\n
Because it was true.<\/p>\n
Jeff wasn\u2019t fake.<\/p>\n
If he liked you, you knew it.<\/p>\n
If he didn\u2019t, you knew that too.<\/p>\n
He was stubborn as hell, opinionated about almost everything, and completely unwilling to compromise who he was just because it was easier.<\/p>\n
I respected that.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite conversations with Jeff was about retirement.<\/p>\n
Actually, it wasn\u2019t one conversation.<\/p>\n
It was dozens.<\/p>\n
I used to ask him about it all the time.<\/p>\n
With everything he had accomplished and everything he had been through, I couldn\u2019t understand why he wouldn\u2019t just slow down.<\/p>\n
He would entertain the idea for a minute.<\/p>\n
Then the next day we\u2019d be right back where we started.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I realized something.<\/p>\n
Jeff didn\u2019t love business.<\/p>\n
He loved people.<\/p>\n
The business was just where he got to find them.<\/p>\n
Even when he talked about work, he wasn\u2019t really talking about work.<\/p>\n
He was talking about his staff.<\/p>\n
A family he met.<\/p>\n
Someone he helped.<\/p>\n
A relationship he built.<\/p>\n
Retirement never stood a chance.<\/p>\n
People were always the point.<\/p>\n
The way he talked about his wife was one of my favorite things about him.<\/p>\n
More than once he told me:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think I\u2019m a badass, wait until you meet my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he meant it every single time.<\/p>\n
The way he talked about his children and grandchildren was even better.<\/p>\n
You would\u2019ve thought he won the lottery every time he got them together.<\/p>\n
Nothing made him prouder.<\/p>\n
He would take his staff to the casino, but the winnings were never really the point.<\/p>\n
The point was being with them.<\/p>\n
Looking back, that\u2019s who Jeff was.<\/p>\n
He loved being around the people he cared about.<\/p>\n
He loved seeing them win.<\/p>\n
He loved hearing their stories.<\/p>\n
He loved building relationships.<\/p>\n
If you were lucky enough to get brought into his circle, you quickly realized something.<\/p>\n
You weren\u2019t really a friend anymore.<\/p>\n
You were family.<\/p>\n
Jeff had stories for days.<\/p>\n
You could ask him a simple question and somehow end up getting a lesson about life.<\/p>\n
A lesson about failure.<\/p>\n
A lesson about getting back up after life knocks you flat on your back.<\/p>\n
And life knocked him down more than once.<\/p>\n
He had incredible highs.<\/p>\n
He had devastating lows.<\/p>\n
He had every reason to quit at different points in his life.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
He kept fighting.<\/p>\n
He kept rebuilding.<\/p>\n
He kept showing up.<\/p>\n
His health struggles were never a secret.<\/p>\n
But there was always more going on than he let people see.<\/p>\n
Not because he wanted sympathy.<\/p>\n
Because he didn\u2019t want people worrying about him.<\/p>\n
He just wanted people to know he was still fighting.<\/p>\n
And fight he did.<\/p>\n
He jokingly called himself the mayor of the gym.<\/p>\n
It fit.<\/p>\n
He knew everybody.<\/p>\n
Talked to everybody.<\/p>\n
Welcomed everybody.<\/p>\n
Even if he was locked into his workout, he wouldn\u2019t leave without saying something to someone.<\/p>\n
A joke.<\/p>\n
A story.<\/p>\n
A smile.<\/p>\n
Something.<\/p>\n
You didn\u2019t always leave with advice.<\/p>\n
But you almost always left smiling.<\/p>\n
He wouldn\u2019t let you leave any other way.<\/p>\n
I wish we had more time.<\/p>\n
I know everybody says that.<\/p>\n
But I mean it.<\/p>\n
Because no matter how much time we get with the people we love, it never feels like enough.<\/p>\n
There are some people whose absence changes a room even when the room is full.<\/p>\n
Hell, Jeff filled the room.<\/p>\n
The gym will keep going.<\/p>\n
People will keep working out.<\/p>\n
Life will keep moving.<\/p>\n
But something feels different now.<\/p>\n
And everybody who knew him feels it.<\/p>\n
There were plenty of days Jeff wasn\u2019t at the gym.<\/p>\n
So eventually I\u2019ll get used to not seeing him walk through those doors.<\/p>\n
But Jeff will always be here.<\/p>\n
In the people he loved.<\/p>\n
The people he helped.<\/p>\n
The people he believed in.<\/p>\n
The laughs he gave us.<\/p>\n
A lot of us are better because we knew him.<\/p>\n
I know I am.<\/p>\n
A man with respiratory issues breathed more life into people than he\u2019ll ever understand.<\/p>\n
And I think that\u2019s one hell of a legacy.<\/p>\n
RIP Jeff.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re truly going to be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, we lost a member of our gym. Truthfully, calling Jeff a member doesn\u2019t feel right. He was a friend. A mentor. A brother. A father figure when I needed one. I\u2019ve spent most of today trying to figure out what to say. Truthfully, I couldn\u2019t. I cried. I stared at a blank screen. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n