Hill Smith Family Update

I heard from one of my former college roommates, Amy, the other day. This Amy should not be mistaken for the first Amy I lived with briefly, my freshman year, who I kindly characterize as mildly psycho. I can leave that story for another day though….

This Amy, who emailed me, lived with me for our last two years of college, in a tiny house we rented with a different roommate each year. Picture three girls living in a tiny three-bedroom (we were lucky there) house, with an airplane-sized bathroom - it even had the airplane sized metal sink. Seriously. I so wish I could find my pictures I took of that house - I think I took one of that sink, knowing my friends from home would never believe me, but it was the size of a small bar sink, only not as deep.

Anyhow, we lived about a block off of campus - a sweet location, really, except for the issues with parking, since we shared the driveway with the boys living in the house next door. And those boys - rugby players and rowdy as all get-out. Our first week there, we decided we didn’t like them. At all.

They partied until all hours, yelled at each other and they DIDN’T INVITE US! (Okay, in all seriousness, they partied more than any of us, and we had been asked to come over when they met us.)

That first year, our other roommate, Lori, and I, were watching a movie late one night, when there was a huge crash that we could feel throughout the house. Two of the guys were fighting on their back deck (they were having a party again, go figure…), and this argument was pretty intense. We didn’t know if they had slammed something into our house (a car, a person?), or if someone had tried to get in.

We called the cops. And we made fun of them through our kitchen window, as the nice police officers stopped by for a visit.

And then Amy met one of our neighbor boys, Josh, and they began hanging out together. That relationship grew and now, all these years later, they are married. They still live in our college town, but not in our college houses.

Josh had a lot of friends, especially other friends who played rugby. One friend, Patrick Lybert, is the reason Amy was contacting me. Pat lost his life in June, of 2006, in Afghanistan.

Here is how Amy described Pat:

(Pat) always wanted to be in the army.

(His) mom convinced him to go to college first in the hopes he’d outgrow it, so he actually finished college first and then came 9-11. (He) joined shortly after our wedding in 2002.

(Pat was) always a very outgoing guy, told the worst jokes ever, but you’d always end up in tears laughing at the stories he told.

(He) did a year long tour in Fallujah, Iraq - heavy combat. The army MADE him take his two-week leave during that time, so we got to visit with him. We’d get the occasional email or phone call while he was over there, and he always tried to sound like himself and not make anyone worry - but of course we always were (worried).

When he got home though you could tell war had changed him - (he was) quieter, more reserved. He had a lot of pictures and stories, but of course he left a lot of the horrors out. After talking to some of his unit at the funeral, I can’t even imagine what they go through on a daily basis.

Seriously, (he was) the type of guy that would do anything for a friend. After a year back in the States, he volunteered to go with a unit to Afghanistan.

Personally I figured he’d made it through Fallujah, Afghanistan would be “safer.” So wrong!

It’s not talked about as much, but the conditions are so much worse there. They didn’t have as much opportunity for internet or phone access, but the emails we did get didn’t sound as upbeat. The last one we got from him (about a month before he was killed) even used the phrase “if I get home.” He’d NEVER said that in Iraq.

From all accounts from the guys he was with that day, he saved the majority of his unit with his actions. They had been totally ambushed.

He had gotten engaged before he left, and was very close with his family. Just one of the most honest, loyal, down to earth, funny people I have ever met.

A couple of weeks ago, his mom emailed a request.

There is a country singer, Keni Thomas, who is having a contest to see where he should play a concert this summer. Pat’s mom is trying to get him to come to Ladysmith, WI, and play after the motorcycle ride for Pat’s memorial fund, in June.

A little background on Keni Thomas (I didn’t know who he was). He has a couple country CDs out, but he also is a former army ranger. So anyway - as I was forwarding this on, I thought maybe you could post the link on your blog- every vote for Ladysmith will help!

Here’s the link:
http://eventful.com/demand/D0-001-001713333-2

Now, I don’t want to make this post and the comments about personal feelings on the war. This is just a request from a mom who has lost her son, passed on to me by a friend.

If you are able, please put in a vote to help them out.

And Amy and Josh, so glad we lived next to that “crazy rugby house,” so you two could live happily ever after! And, so sorry for the loss of your friend.

(Pat is the one “licking” Amy’s foot, in this 2002 wedding picture. He was an usher at their wedding.)