It’s been 5 years since the world lost one of its brightest lights. We still miss you and think about you every day. Resharing Colin’s Eulogy from 2019 honoring Geej (remainder is organized 1-5 below in comments section).
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George John Gerner III. GJ. GEEJ. G MAN. GG, Georgie, first born son, big brother, cousin, friend, CPA, manager, coach, my everything. These are just a few ways to describe the man my brother was, but will never pay him true justice.
I shouldn’t be up here today. I should be giving my Best man speech on his wedding day. We should have flutes of champagne and endless Maduro Brown Ales. We should be crying happy tears watching him start the next chapter of his life and all the futuristic joys. All things that will unfortunately never materialize. However, that’s exactly what we’re going to do - my brother is deserving of a celebration of the amazing man he is, not simply a somber remembrance of the last few months of the man GBM forced onto him.
As we celebrate Geej, let’s remember that Cancer was only a portion of his life. A messed up, unfair, vicious portion of his 30 years on this earth. Let’s also remember that Geej did NOT lose his battle to GBM. In fact GBM told him that the average survival is only 10-15 months and he doubled that. It took GBM to spread through his whole brain last week to stop him. THAT’S the thing about my brother. He didn’t accept average. He strived and achieved greatness in every. thing. he did.
So honestly, where do you begin to properly honor a man like Geej?! I will begin with the GJ SMILE which is simply my all-time favorite characteristic of him. Even in his darkest days, he found a way to let the smile stretch from ear to ear as he slipped in the wittiest of comments. Nobody was safe when he was on and boy could he be ON. Ya see, he truly was always happy. He didn’t need much and he asked for nothing. He was plenty happy to be around people he loved and often times that was beyond enough. He’d for sure give a GJ smile at this part...ultimately, we can all take a page out of his playbook.
Next I wanted to touch on him as a big brother to both myself and Kelly. He always had our back. Always. This truly started to resonate with me when I followed him to the University at Albany and lived under the same roof with him again. Although this time our doors weren’t directly across the hall like they were growing up and it was certainly without mom’s supervision. Whether it was with my college classes, the fraternity or another late night at the bar, he was always the first person to be there for me. That’s the funny thing about the last few years. Ya see he always took care of ME - it really wasn’t ever the other way around. He was the cool, calm and collected big bro. I was anything but.
All of a sudden I found myself taking care of him and everyone always jumped to ask me how I did it. The truth - I had learned how to do so after decades of watching Geej do that for ME and Kel.