Hajja Salesjana July-September 2019

Columbus.’ Kendrick was in there with his dad, helping,” she said. Cece Bedard knew Kendrick because her dad, too, was in the Knights of Columbus. In a message to CNA, Bedard said that Kendrick “loved his faith and he really loved to serve others.” It was not just that Kendrick did one heroic act, Bedard said, but “he lived the life of a hero, always helping others to the point where I’m not quite sure what he did for himself.” He loved his Catholic faith, Bedard said, and he once told her, when they were young, that although he couldn’t picture himself being a priest, he thought “the way of life (of a priest) was simply beautiful.” “ He truly was a living saint ,” Bedard said. Deacon Chuck Parker knew Kendrick at Notre Dame parish, where he remembers him as an altar server and a young usher, and a favorite greeter at the doors of the church. “If anybody could exemplify a minister of hospitality it was Kendrick,” Parker said. “Even at such a young age, he was always very kind and compassionate, very engaging with people… people loved coming in and being greeted by Kendrick.” “You hear a lot of people say that he was really a good kid,” Parker said. “And he was really a good kid, he just really was.”   Parker, like many others, said he “wasn’t surprised” when he heard how Kendrick died, “because he was such a loving kid.” “I was thinking about John’s Gospel where it says that there’s no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And that was Kendrick ,” he said. In Religion class, Haynes said Kendrick was pensive, hungry for the faith and always eager to play Jesus whenever they acted out stories from the Bible. “He always wanted to be Jesus,” Haynes said. In a video from her class that she posted to Facebook, Kendrick acts out the part of Jesus, going to search for his apostles or to comfort a suffering person, blessing them with the sign of the cross and inviting them to join him. “I have this amazing scene where he found the two apostles and they’re all kneeling in front of the camera... Kendrick is peering at the camera and then he does the sign of the cross at everyone watching. And he was so serious in it,” Haynes said. While Religion can sometimes be a difficult subject to teach Junior High kids, Haynes said that the whole class “was really on a spiritual journey that I just got to witness. They really wanted the faith. And they weren’t afraid to ask the tough questions and to be stuck with some of the answers.” Haynes credits Kendrick’s parents for raising him to be a kind and faithful young man, and she urged everyone to continue to pray for them for the rest of their lives. Now a parent herself, Hayes said that while she hopes she never has to experience the tragedy of losing a child, she wants her two boys to grow up to be “just like Kendrick.” Because of her faith and because of how he died, Haynes said she believes Kendrick “went straight to heaven.” “I don’t think there’s any doubt.” 24 H AJJA S ALESJANA