Life Sketch

Caden Randy Dirks has always loved a good joke, as evidence of his very birth.  On May 15, 2001, one week before his due date, Caden decided to play a joke on us.  Not only was he coming early (a novel thought that I had never even considered), but the doctors had told us that he was actually a Girl.  At the exact moment of his birth at 8:09pm in Houston, Texas, Randy excitedly exclaimed, “It’s a BOY!”  And from that moment on, Caden brought laughter to our lives.

His early childhood was filled with curiosity and learning.  One minute he was distributing Hershey’s Cocoa Powder all over Grandma and Grandpa Burrell’s WHITE basement carpet, or drawing murals with black permanent Sharpie all over Grandpa and Grandpa Dirks’ WHITE basement walls, and the next he was standing on a table, front and center, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance for an audience at just three-years-old.  Caden remembered everything, he loved random facts.  And, oh, was that boy naughty and difficult as a toddler— by far the hardest of the five Dirks children.  The tantrums that boy could throw!  He knew what he wanted, he knew how to get it, and he was not going to let anyone tell him no.  All of that angst, and defiance, and disobedience changed around his fourth birthday.  From then on, he has been the most straight-forward, easy child you could ever imagine.

Months before Caden’s fifth birthday, our family of four moved to Casper, Wyoming.  Caden loved Casper.  From Kindergarten through the beginning of Middle School, Caden enjoyed the easy and lasting friendships with Brayden, Danielle and Violet.  It was these friends that supported him during a difficult trial in his life when he had to patch one of his eyes for six months in the third grade.  It was hard and embarrassing for him, but he never complained, knowing he had the unwavering support of his group.  And, honestly, Caden just never complained about his trials.  Those friends, those amazing friends, made it easy and wonderful and special to live in Casper, and doubly, brutally hard to move from Wyoming to Washington. Bar none, one of the hardest moves we have ever had to make— and we have had our share of moves!  Caden always said that he felt Casper was the place that he “grew up.”  He was always proud to say we had moved from Wyoming.

November 2, 2012 our family of seven arrived in Richland.  Because of the life he left in Wyoming, Caden was lost when we arrived; he did not know where he belonged.  It was many weeks before he felt like life would or could go on again.  Life started for Caden again in the form of Zachary Bagley.  Throughout the near-five years we have lived here, Caden has substantially added to his circle of friends, becoming part of a large, incredible group of youth, but it was Zachary Bagley that saved Caden all of those years ago, bringing laughter and joy back into his life.

Scouting has been a major part of Caden’s life since he turned 8-years-old.  Caden loved scouting, even recruiting multiple friends to join his troop.  Because Randy was a scout leader when Caden was 11-years-old, Caden got to go to scout camp a year earlier than most, giving him a running start to earn his Eagle at 14-years old.  When it came time for Caden to do his final project, he knew immediately what he wanted to do, something personal and full of meaning to him: Pediatric blankets for the local hospital.  An insert placed with each blanket read:  {READ THE INSERT}  It was not enough to do a project that would benefit all, he wanted to do his project to benefit “the one.”

Education was also very important to Caden.  Upon waking from anesthesia when he broke his arm last year, he informed the ER doctor that he’d been “doing his homework on the beach.”  We laughed, but the truth is, he really did care about his grades.  We always marveled that he’d take his massive backpack to the hospital with him, doing assignments while nurses bustled around him.  We found goals written in both his journal and Duty to God booklet about being on track to graduate from BYU as a doctor.  Many of his entries over the years categorized things he’d personally change with regards to medical care given to children.  Personal experience, combined with the knowledge he was working hard to attain, would have made Caden the best of doctors— probably the best we know.

From an early age, Caden had plans to go on a Mission.  Many times at dinner — many times!— he would say, “I’m going to eat this so that I have practice eating foods that I do not like.”  With each recurrence, his only worry (that he ever voiced aloud) was that it was pushing his Mission back.  What Caden never realized was that his very life and testimony brought many closer to our Heavenly Father, that his example and legacy will continue to bring many to Him.  Caden was, and is, a Missionary.  

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, October 4th, 2017, The Boy in the Bed, our Caden, gave us his last earthly gifts before returning to his Home with our Heavenly Father: personalized gifts for his siblings, hugs and his last spoken I Love You’s to us all, and his fervent testimony, yearning to be worthy of the Celestial Kingdom.  Our Christ-like, sweet, valiant, courageous, righteous, driven, funny, service-oriented, determined, remarkable child has gone Home. 

There was a time when I was telling Caden how much of a hero he was to myself and others, how amazing he was in the eyes of so many.  Ever humble, my Caden did not know how he could be— it was just the way he lived. And he did, too— he really lived.