Jonathan (Jon) S. Dekker

Jon Dekker lived his life as an inspiration to everyone he came in contact with. His journey with cancer started at the age of nineteen and continued until the end of his life, on his fortieth birthday, February 18, 2006.

Jon was born in Zeeland Hospital to proud parents Dave and Vonnie Dekker. He was the baby of the family with two older brothers, Tim and Dean and one older sister, Diane. He and his brothers made their parents prematurely gray by constantly getting into trouble as only a bunch of brothers can do. One example of this was the time the brothers used their mom's brand new vacuum to siphon gas out of the family car to replenish the gas in the snowmobile. Their mother always wondered why she smelled gas for so many vacuumings afterwards. Jon lived the majority of his life in Holland, attending Lakewood/Waukazoo Elementary School and graduating from West Ottawa High School in 1984.

In high school he enjoyed working at Family Fare North in the meat department as a "wrapper/clean up kid". While working at the grocery store, Jon met his future bride, Sue, who was a cashier there at the time and went to the same high school. At that time, Family Fare was THE place to work for teenagers and they became the typical Family Fare high school couple. They enjoyed hanging out as a big group of teenagers from work.

After graduating from high school, Jon went on to attend Davenport College of Business where he majored in Computers and Accounting. During the "80's it was common for computer majors to work on writing programs for computers that were gigantic. Jon graduated in 1986 from Davenport. In the end, however, Jon decided to continue working at Family Fare because he loved the people and the challenge of what was to become his job as a meat cutter. He eventually was promoted to Meat Department Manager.

Sadly, at the age of nineteen, while still a student in college, he discovered he had cancer. He battled his first occurrence of cancer for two years until the age of twenty-one. In typical "Jon style" he never let that diagnosis take over his life. In fact, anytime he was asked how he was doing, even if he felt miserable, he always replied "good".

It was a happy day for Jon on December 15, 1989 when he married his longtime girlfriend, Sue. They started their married life in a cute little brick house on 32nd street which he took pride in painting and remodeling. Jon and Sue loved traveling in their early married life. One memorable trip they took was to London, England and the English countryside.

On April 3, 1996, not one, but two bouncing baby boys were born to the Dekkers. Being a father to Griffin and Tate was the greatest accomplishment in Jon's life. Unfortunately, before the boys were one year old his cancer recurred. Even though he was sick for much of his boy's lives he still made sure to do "dad like" things with them like camping in a tent in the backyard, playing board games, fishing, and going to the beach.

Jon's interests included photography, watching/going to NASCAR races, fishing, being the "grill master" at every cook-out and camping with his family. He also enjoyed tinkering on the computer and reading Harry Potter books.

In 2001, Jon started working as a courier at Lighthouse Title as a small job to keep him busy as he was no longer able to keep up the stamina of a full-time job. He loved schmoozing the ladies in the office and they loved him too. Sue teased him about going to see his "girlfriends" everyday. Even back in the days of Family Fare, the ladies loved to tease and take care of him.

Jon endured multiple surgeries, every experimental chemotherapy available for his type of cancer at the National Cancer Institute, many kinds of traditional chemotherapies, numerous rounds of radiation, and even an experimental treatment in the Dominican Republic. No matter how much he ran from it, the cancer always caught up with him. His sheer will to live and complete sassiness kept him alive far longer than any other person being given his circumstances.

Jon lived his life by example and was a strong quiet Christian. His faith got him through his darkest hours. He knew he was going to heaven to be in the full presence of God. Sue like to imagine in discussions with him how, when he died, he would be a completely healed person in heaven with no breathing problems, no leg weakness, and no pain, dancing on the streets of gold.

His main goal in life was to just be "normal". He loved the shock value he gave others when he trolled the doctors' offices and hospitals pushing his chemo IV pole looking for People magazines while all the other people with cancer sat like good little patients in their chairs receiving their chemo. He got great delight in pushing the limits with the doctors and telling them what he was and wasn't going to do. One time when he told a nurse he wasn't going to take chemotherapy the following week because he was leaving on vacation, a woman in the next chair asked him, "You can do that?" And his reply was "I can do anything I want to do".

Jon's family includes his wife, Sue, sons, Tate and Griffin; parents, Dave and Vonnie Dekker of Holland; brothers and sister: Tim (Laurie) Dekker of Holland; Dean (Joni) Dekker of Fond du Lac, WI; Diane (Ron) Paris of Zeeland; grandmother, Connie Wolters of Holland' parents in law, Harley and Phyllis Brown of Holland; brother in law and sisters in law, Dean (Kelly) Brown of Holland; Laurie (Paul) Stears of Holland; and several nieces and nephews.