Workaholic Father Gives An Emotional Warning To Parents After Finding Out His Son Died During A Work Meeting

Sadly, it took a family tragedy to give this guy a new perspective on things and remind him of what is most important in life.

Stephanie

• Published in Interesting
• January 31, 2020

Entrepreneur, J.R. Storment, was a workaholic for eight years. He worked around the clock, rarely taking any time off, and his main focus was building his business and making it a success.

Sadly, it took a family tragedy to give J.R. a new perspective on things and remind him of what is most important in life.

In a Linkedin post, J.R. recalled the moment he received the devastating news that his eight-year-old son, Wiley, had passed away. He received the horrifying call whilst he was in the middle of a business meeting, which forced him to see things in a different light.

J.R.'s post was titled, “It’s later than you think.” He wrote:

"Eight years ago, during the same month, I had twin boys and co-founded Cloudability. About three months ago Cloudability was acquired. About three weeks ago we lost one of our boys.

When I got the call I was sitting in a conference room with 12 people at our Portland office talking about PTO policies. Minutes earlier, I had admitted to the group that in the last 8 years I’d not taken more than a contiguous week off."

Wiley had a mild form of epilepsy. However, he had never been considered in danger, and when J.R. had left for work that morning, Wiley was fine, and everything was normal.

"My wife and I have an agreement that when one of us calls, the other answers. So when the phone rang I stood up and walked to the conference room door immediately.

I was still walking through the door when I answered with “Hey, what’s up?”

Her reply was icy and immediate: “J.R., Wiley is dead.”

“What?” I responded incredulously.

“Wiley has died.” she reiterated.

“What?! No.” I yelled out, “No!”

“I’m so sorry, I have to call 911.”

When J.R. arrived home, the street was filled with emergency vehicles. It was hours before he was allowed to get a glimpse of his son, who was still laying innocently in his pajamas in bed as though he were asleep.

J.R. says he wants to remind other parents to spend time with their kids and remember what's important before it's too late.

"Hug your kids. Don’t work too late.

A lot of the things you are likely spending your time on you’ll regret once you no longer have the time. I’m guessing you have 1:1 meetings on the books with a lot of people you work with. Do you have them regularly scheduled with your kids?

If there’s any lesson to take away from this, it’s to remind others (and myself) not to miss out on the things that matter."

Linkedin, being a professional networking site, seemed like the right place for J.R. to warn other workaholics that work isn't everything. Family comes first, and time can be tragically cut so short.

Before Wiley's passing, J.R. had given $100 to each of his boys. They had decided they wanted to use it to go on a camping trip, which was something J.R. had sadly never made time for.

So, after Wiley's death, the Storment family decided to go on the camping trip in his honor. They purchased some new camping gear and headed towards Mt. St. Helens.

When they arrived, they realized they had forgotten to bring the cash to pay for the camping fee. However, J.R.'s wife remembered the Wiley had put his $100 down the back seat pocket of the car. They were able to retrieve it and use it to pay the fee. It was as if Wiley had bailed them out of trouble.

“It was one of many bittersweet moments we will experience for the rest of our lives. Each happy time brings with it the sadness that he doesn’t get to experience it.”

J.R. says his relationship with his wife and remaining son has been forever changed because of what happened to Wiley.

He hopes that others will also learn from his tragic story, and will learn to appreciate that family is what is truly important in life.

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Stephanie