You're Beautiful / Gabriel Enderle (James's wife )
"We shared a moment that will last 'till the end" ~ James Blunt
How true. In the span of eternity, our time together was so brief and short. In forever, it was only a moment. But for me, it was the best moment of my life and I will always treasure it. I will carry it with me in heart for the rest of my life and beyond - when our souls reunited in Heaven.
On this Easter Holiday / Gabriel Enderle (wife) James, on this Easter weekend, I am thinking about you even more than I usually do. Remembering what Jesus Christ endured and how He suffered for mankind, for us, is keeping the thought in my heart that I will see you again. You shall rise again too one day, as He did. I am so grateful for that and for the knowledge that our lives do not end at temporal death. I miss you and wish you were here to be with me and the kids. Nothing would make me happier than to hold your hand while watching our children run around in the grass looking for candy filled Easter eggs. But, I know you will be there with us in spirit. I cannot see you, but I can feel you everyday. I love you. Happy Easter.
The 1st Thanksgiving without you / Gabriel Enderle (Eternal wife )
My sweet James, the first Thanksgiving has come and gone without you here and I actually made it through it. Can you believe it? I made it through it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, certainly not as bad as the week or two leading up to it. I have cried more lately than I had in a while. Sometimes it just hits me like a ton of bricks. It was a good day, a lot of laughter and love filled my home and would have made you so happy. We talked a lot about you and the things we love and miss about you, there were some tears, but more smiles and laughter. I know you would have wanted it that way and it felt good to feel that way. There was an empty place made for you at the table, right next to me where you should have been. That was tough - to look beside me to see an empty spot. But I felt you there in spirit and I know you were smiling too. What peace that fills me with! I miss you, we all do, my family and yours. I hope you are proud of me and how I am living, not giving up. Life does go on, doesn’t it? You are in my thoughts what seems to be every second and I can’t wait to see you again and hold you again. I’ll be home again finally. I love you forever. XOXO ~ Gabriel
I Believe / Gabriel Enderle (eternal wife ) My James, I heard this song for the first time the other day and every time that I play it, I can't help but think of you. I think this song says everything.
"I Believe" by Diamond Rio Every now and then soft as breath upon my skin I feel you come back again And it’s like you haven’t been gone a moment from my side Like the tears were never cried Like the hands of time are holding you and me And with all my heart I’m sure we’re closer than we ever were I don’t have to hear or see, I’ve got all the proof I need There are more than angels watching over me, I believe, oh I believe.
That when you die your life goes on It doesn’t end here when you’re gone Every soul is filled with light It never ends if I’m right Our love can even reach across eternity I believe, oh I believe
Forever, you’re a part of me Forever, in the heart of me I will hold you even longer if I can Oh, the people who don’t see the most Say that I believe in ghosts If that makes me crazy, then I am ’cause I believe, oh I believe There are more than angels watching over me I believe, oh I believe Every now and then soft as breath upon my skin I feel you come back again And I believe
Sleep in peace, my love / Gabriel Enderle (eternal wife )
I often wonder what it was like for you as you slipped away from this life and entered the gates of the spirit world. I am haunted by questions of your death, of your suffering. Did you feel the pain of death? Did you see yourself as you rose from your body? Did you hear the screams of our children only a few feet away? Did you think of them? Did you think of me as you were dying? Were you afraid, or rather engulfed by an overwhelming sense of peace? What was it like to take Christ's hands as he led you into paradise? Do you feel the pain of missing me as much as I feel the pain of missing you? Those are questions I will have for the rest of my life, I suppose until I am with you again. I do know that you are at peace now and the physical pain of your death is long gone for you, although the emotional pain is still so real and fresh for me and for all of us here that miss you. I miss so much about you, so many of the little things that only husband and wife share. You are still my best friend and when I think of past times together, you can still make me laugh. I am still as much in love with you as I was the last day I saw you and told you "I love you" for the last time. Please stay with me and watch over me. Please protect me and our children. Until we meet again, my love, sleep in peace. XOXO ~ your wife for eternity, Gabriel
You deserve this! / Gary Boehling (passer-by) I ran across your site this morning. I'm sorry you had to leave so young. I give you a salute Sir for your bravery of our country, and to man. I read about you and, I am very sorry you can't be with your children and family. we will meet someday in the heavens above. until then my friend. May God bless you and your family, I salute you James E Enderle II. gary b
James's Favorite Piece of Art / Gabriel Enderle (eternal wife )
I'm Free / Gabriel Enderle (devoted wife ) Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free, walking the path God laid for me. I took His hand when I heard Him call, I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day, to laugh, to love, to work or play. Tasks left undone must stay that way, I found His peace at the close of day.
If my parting has left a void, then fill it with remembered joys. A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss; Oh yes these things I too will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow; I wish you joy for your tomorrow; My life's been full, I savored much, good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief, don't lengthen it with undue grief. Lift up your hearts, and peace to thee, God wants me now, He set me free.
Nothing Gold Can Stay / Gabriel Enderle (devoted wife )
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
~ Robert Frost
I will remember you / Gabriel Enderle (devoted wife )
True love is frozen in time, I'll be your champion and you will be mine, I will remember you. ~ Amy Grant
My thoughts on James / Pam Norwood (Mother-in-law and friend )Read >>
My thoughts on James / Pam Norwood (Mother-in-law and friend )
James, it has taken me a long time to get the courage to post this. I wrote this in June '05 following your death. I read it at your graveside Father's Day weekend to our families.
When Gabe was planning James' funeral, she asked me if I wanted to speak. I wanted to very much, but knew that I would never be able to make it through. As eloquent and fitting as his brothers' speeches were and the tribute from his Army unit was, they described James as a brother, a son, and a soldier. There was one aspect of James' life, that of father and husband that was inadvertently overlooked and another family that James was very much a part of - the Norwood and Sowles family. Today I want to share with you all what James meant to us.
The very first day we met James was Thanksgiving of 1998. The moment that James walked through my front door at Marian Trail, shook my hand and looked my in the eye, I knew that he would marry Gabriel. I told Ed late that night as we were preparing for bed "that boy is going to be our son-in-law". I don't know exactly how to describe it, but from the first, James and I had a bond. Maybe it was kindred souls that have been wounded in childhood that recognized each other automatically. Maybe it was our warped sense of humor. Maybe it was God. All I know is that James became in such a short time the son I never had. I have often described it as "not my son by birth, but son of my heart."
James affected us all. Matt told Gabe that THanksgiving night that now seems like a lifetime away that before she had brought home boys for us to meet. but on that day she brought home a man. Over the course of the years, Matt and Paige and James became closer and closer to the point that James was the brother that neither of them ever had. James will forever be Matt's brother in his heart. As they hiked the mountains of Carolina together, they made plans to bring their sons with them. For Matt, the words, "Lift up thine eyes unto the hills" will bring special memories of their time together and the future that will never be.
When James proposed to Gabriel and they made their wedding plans, I thought how fortunate James was to be marrying into our family. On their wedding day at the end of the ceremony as we congregated outside the church sanctuary, I hugged James and whispered in his ear, "Now you are legally part of our family" and he whispered back "Finally!" I thought at the time that James was lucky to become part of us. part of the Norwood clan. But the truth of the matter is that WE were the lucky ones, that he came into OUR lives and stayed. He intertwined himself into our lives, into the very fabric of our hearts. James gave himself to us wholeheartedly and added us to his list of people he loved and cared for and would give to so unselfishly. James had a way of doing that, giving so freely of his time and love, never thinking of being overburdened.
I knew that James was going to make a great father by the way he was so enthralled with our Erin the day she was born. We all piled into Paige's and Matt's house when we knew that she was in labor and James was assigned the duty of keeping the stopwatch, timing each contraction so that we would know when to leave for the hospital. To be included in such an important family event pleased him to no end. THat afternoon, standing in Paige's hospital room, James held Erin for the first time and was enchanted, as we all were. I will never forget the look in his eyes. Gabe shared with me after James' death that when he was a young man and people would ask him what what he wanted to be as an adult, his answer was "a good father and husband". That he was. I was privileged to be at both Olivia's and Carson's births and I can not describe to you how excited he was about being a father. How will we ever be able to convey to them the depths of their father's love unconditionally. I am grateful that he had the experience of being both a husband and a father. I thank God everyday that he was our Carson's and Olivia's daddy and he was everything he wanted to be when he was growing up - a good husband and father. A godly man.
The day before James' funeral, the other son of my heart, Matt, summed up James' life with a quote from the book, The Outhsiders : "Nothing gold can stay." How appropriate! The bottom line is this: James WAS golden. Golden in every way.
By marrying Gabriel, we are James' other family, the one that adopted him, the that he chose to be part of. He CHOSE to be part of. How lucky we are to have had him in our lives! The TRUTH is James made us ALL better people, a better family. We miss him - his smile, his wicked sense of humor, his goodness, his kindness, his example, his faith, his love for God and his country, his friendship, his "up for adventure, no matter how small or big" nature, his willingness to love and be loved, his ability to share himself with us all. We love him; we always will. He is, and will forever remain, ou James.
"Nature's first leave is gold/her hardest hue to hold/her early leaves a flower/but only so an hour/then leaf sibsides to leaf/so Eden sank to grief/ so dawn goes down to day/nothing gold can stay."
It's mid March and another Easter is fast approaching since his passing. A day doesn't go by that I don't think of James. I can still here is voice! Every time I fly through the Dallas Airport I get shivers because that is where Randy called and told me what had happened. I miss him much more than I usually show it. He is an inspiration to me, the lives he touched, including my own.
A few days ago I learned that Randy Black, my best friend and the one responsible for bringing me to the Gospel has Lung Cancer. I called and talked to Mom Black to find out how she is doing. She is hanging in there, but troubled with the same old questions when one of your children is in trouble. Randy is another individual like James. Loving, kind, a life of service, a great father, son, brother, and a great friend. I talked to Mom Black about James and of the Great Work that God must have for him, to have taken him from us when he did.
On Easter Sunday I have to talk in Church about the Savior, and whenever I do, I always think of James and of his love for his Savior. I love you all
A Poem / L. Stevenson (sister-in-law by marriage )Read >>
A Poem / L. Stevenson (sister-in-law by marriage )
Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory, Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Even when James was alive, I could never remember his birthday. I always got confused between the 6th and the 9th. He would have been 31 this year and what life would have been like for him had he lived, I cannot know. I can only guess and my speculation is built only on the few memories I have of him. I'd like to think, however, that people would be marking this day with joy, not sadness or regret. I do not pretend to know or even guess what happens after death. I have no religious faith to convince me that James is up in some mystical heaven looking down on us all. But it is easy to know that he would not want sadness today. He'd want us to have a laugh on him. The mere fact that he is dead and we are still thinking of him as we do ensures his immortality, as long as we carry his name on our lips and his presence in our minds, he will live on.
I'm sorry James that it's taken me so long. I still really don't know what to say or how to handle this. I've come to this site before and wanted to say something, but just couldn't. In doing so I would be admitting that you are gone. I just don't want to do that. This past year in Germany did make it a little harder. It was so awesome to get to spend it with Randy and Emily and the boys, but it was also difficult. Seeing Randy, I saw you. I've always been one to keep being upset deep inside me and not let it out so not to upset others. I think that's made me hurt even more. I talked with Randy sometimes about you and even with Emily. It hurts me to say this but it just made me even more mad about the whole thing. I wish I was as strong as Gabe. She's so forgiving. I wish I had that quality. I wish I could have some kind of peace from you. I know I need to soften my heart before you can give that to me, but it doesn't come that easy. I guess I'm asking you to help me. I just don't want to hurt any more. If dad even mentions your name I burst into tears. I can't think of you or talk about you without crying. I just don't know how everyone else does it. Dad has pictures of Olivia and Carson at his work office. I couldn't help but break down when I saw them. I just keep thinking it's not fair for them. They should have the oportunity to know what a great dad you were. The same thoughts that Gabe has goes through my head all the time. Were you in pain? Was it quick? Could you hear Olivia and Carson crying for you? Did you try and fight it? Did you try? I know this is a step to help me by getting this out. I love you James and you truely are missed.
I am sorry for your loss. / Rory Dannon Chastain
Gabe, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I hope that God provides you with the strength to make it through each and every day. Rory Dannon Chastain Stockbridge Georiga 770-507-0820 Close
A brief moment of darkness was all that I knew, before Heaven's Gate came into my view. Loved ones and friends I had missed for many years, welcomed me with open arms and many happy tears. All the hurt, fear, and pain that I have ever known, is gone from my life, I am finally home. I gazed upon the Lord's sweet smiling face, and for the first time in my life I knew and felt His grace. I know that you miss me, but please dry your eyes. I will always be watching and loving you from my new home in the sky. A cool breeze on your face, a touch of light rain, I will send as a reminder that we will be united again. Life on earth is but one brief moment in time, I am finally home, Eternity is mine.
We really miss you. I know that you are well, since you are in a better place than we are. Gabe and the kids miss you terribly. The kids are growing up to know you from all of the stories Gabe and your family tell them. The kids are so beautiful. I am sure that you are proud of them. Any father would be.
I know that you are busy, but please send the Holy Ghost to be with Gabe. I worry about her. She is still struggling to find her place in the world without you by her side.
Tributes and Condolences
Add to favorites 
