A very good friend of mine, Sunday Ibok, died a tragic and untimely death last week and left me and hundreds of other friends devastated and confused. He was in Texas for a friend’s wedding when he suffered a massive brain aneurism and was care flighted to a hospital in Dallas and put on life support. He was one of those people that shined a little brighter than the rest of us, and I’m not just saying that. When you were around him he made you feel like the most important person on the planet. Like a celebrity. He was a dear friend and he will be missed. He’s with the Lord now and I know that I will see him again someday. Even though it’s extremely painful now, I am so grateful that I had the chance to know Sunday. The last thing he wrote on Twitter was simply the word FAITHFUL. I found this very fitting for the man that he was.
I wanted to make something as a way to grieve and honor my friend. I created this image last wednesday night (9/28/11) and decided to put it up on facebook where hundreds of others were posting messages, photos, and memories of Sunday. I woke up the next morning to a few emails from people asking if they could get a print of the image so I uploaded it to Society6 and was about to let those people know that they could get it there when my wife had the idea to use the poster to raise money for Sunday’s family who is now in desperate need of finances to cover the medical and funeral bills. I never would have expected such an amazing response. As of today, we have raised pver $2,200 for Sunday’s family with the help of the amazing people at Society6 who offered to donate a percentage of the sales to help in the fundraising effort. I am so deeply moved by this whole experience and thank everyone who has bought a print, my new friends at Society6, and my amazing wife for coming up with the idea in the first place.
It’s not too late to help. I am going to leave the print up for a while and as more are sold I will continue to send the proceeds to Sunday’s family. Also, please visit FriendsOfSunday.com for more ways to help. Thank you.
*photo by Frederick Egan Castleberry
