Memorial Day - Jake, Portrait | USAA

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01]My dad passed when I was 4 months old.

[00:00:04]I think that loss appears [music] mostly in just the absence of what could have been.

[00:00:09]I guess you don't realize what you're missing until you're missing it. Life's just life as a kid until you realize [music] something is different about you. I wonder who I would be if I knew him, if I grew up around him, if he was there.

[00:00:21]I just wish I got to know him.

[00:00:29]This is his baby book. So, this is um >> [music] >> one of the last pictures that I had of Dave kissing Jake goodbye right before he was going to get on the plane. And uh that's the one that Jake drew last year [music] as a senior. What's funny is is Jake's drawing to me looks more like Dave [music] than this does.

[00:00:49]The way Jake drew it, it makes it look like more like that, like more like he's supposed to look, which I loved.

[00:00:55]I kind of feel like there's some divine intervention [music] of some kind. Uh cuz this turned out This is the best piece I've ever done. I think I just really [music] uh captured the emotion well in this piece and just kind of left it at that.

[00:01:11]Seems like he was an incredible person, and he was 2 weeks away from coming home. 2 weeks away from me living a normal life.

[00:01:18]2 weeks away from this person being one of the two most important people in my life. I believe she [music] still is an incredibly important person in my life.