Obituary for Gabriel Jeske
Gabriel Isaac Jeske, age 18, of Saline, Michigan, passed away on May 2, 2020 after a brave three year battle with cancer.
Gabriel was born in Key West, Florida, in mid-fall of 2001 to a lively household of four; and baby made five. He was joined two years later by a little sister, with whom he soon formed a special bond. Samuel, his youngest brother came along five years later, after the family had moved to Milan, Michigan.
From the very beginning, Gabriel did what he did best: make everyone around him laugh. He had his own style of doing everything, whether it was crawling on one knee and one foot, which earned him the nickname “Scootie” as a baby, or doing Tae Bo with his own special “technique” as a toddler.
Another nickname he acquired growing up was “the thin one.” One time the family was looking high and low for him and could not find him. It turned out that he had fallen asleep right on top of his bed in plain sight, but he was so camouflaged by his striped bed sheets that his brother, Andrew, could not see him.
There was a period of time when he thought he would be a geologist. He collected a huge number of rocks of all sorts from an empty lot behind the house in Milan and anywhere else that promised a good find. Once, a dear friend of the family took him, his sister, and her niece and nephew to a rock quarry. Her nephew found a beautiful but huge rock that he wanted to take home. He soon gave up because it was too heavy to carry home, but Gabriel assured him he would carry it for him. And he did! He brought it from the quarry all the way home, and for this great effort, his little friend let him keep it.
Gabriel was a great athlete and a remarkable runner. He had a natural grace to his stride and unbelievable stamina. When he was bored, he would head outside and just run laps around the house for up to an hour at times. He used to ask to be dropped off a few blocks from the house on the way home from school, and he would run instead of ride, trying to beat the car—which he did on occasion. When he was a sophomore, he broke the record for his age in the Ann Arbor-Dexter run without even trying.
In martial arts, he excelled. He learned a few fundamentals from his father, a former black belt in Taekwondo, then began to study on his own. His favorite style was Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, though he studied numerous other styles to incorporate and learn from. He had several long conversations with his older brother in which he’d present his findings about Krav Maga, Ninjutsu, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and other martial arts styles from which he’d pulled useful information or ways of thinking. This passion started as simple research for a book that he’d been writing, and grew into something he loved doing.
Gabriel was a brilliant kid, in the advanced learning program (ALP) in school. He developed a keen intuition for art and creative writing early on. He began pencil sketching and making video game pixel art as part of a project he’d been working on with friends on a beginner’s programming website called Scratch. He slowly branched out from there, each of his artistic exploits overlapping and feeding each other. His writing and the games he played gave him more reason, more subjects, to draw, and eventually he branched into digital painting to bring more life to his art. He grew in stages as his interests expanded, each causing the others to grow.
There is a ton more we could tell about Gabriel, like his absolutely accepting and kind-hearted disposition, and that he was the best friend you would ever want to know; but time and space are limited. Just know that for the short 18 years he occupied this planet, he left quite an impact on the people who knew him. He is described as easy to be with and always quick to crack a joke even in the most tense situations. It was… really, really hard to say goodbye it still doesn’t feel real but even though he isn’t here in the flesh, the warmth of his memory remains. He will be loved and missed by everyone he touched.
He is survived by his parents, Ted and Dierdre Jeske; and his siblings, Andrew, Nathan, Caris, and Samuel; as well as many family and friends who live locally as well as across the globe.
Pastor Tiskono Cornelius Crawford will officiate a Celebration of Gabriel’s’ Life Service on Saturday, May 16, 2020. Please contact the Jeske family for more details.
Gabriel was born in Key West, Florida, in mid-fall of 2001 to a lively household of four; and baby made five. He was joined two years later by a little sister, with whom he soon formed a special bond. Samuel, his youngest brother came along five years later, after the family had moved to Milan, Michigan.
From the very beginning, Gabriel did what he did best: make everyone around him laugh. He had his own style of doing everything, whether it was crawling on one knee and one foot, which earned him the nickname “Scootie” as a baby, or doing Tae Bo with his own special “technique” as a toddler.
Another nickname he acquired growing up was “the thin one.” One time the family was looking high and low for him and could not find him. It turned out that he had fallen asleep right on top of his bed in plain sight, but he was so camouflaged by his striped bed sheets that his brother, Andrew, could not see him.
There was a period of time when he thought he would be a geologist. He collected a huge number of rocks of all sorts from an empty lot behind the house in Milan and anywhere else that promised a good find. Once, a dear friend of the family took him, his sister, and her niece and nephew to a rock quarry. Her nephew found a beautiful but huge rock that he wanted to take home. He soon gave up because it was too heavy to carry home, but Gabriel assured him he would carry it for him. And he did! He brought it from the quarry all the way home, and for this great effort, his little friend let him keep it.
Gabriel was a great athlete and a remarkable runner. He had a natural grace to his stride and unbelievable stamina. When he was bored, he would head outside and just run laps around the house for up to an hour at times. He used to ask to be dropped off a few blocks from the house on the way home from school, and he would run instead of ride, trying to beat the car—which he did on occasion. When he was a sophomore, he broke the record for his age in the Ann Arbor-Dexter run without even trying.
In martial arts, he excelled. He learned a few fundamentals from his father, a former black belt in Taekwondo, then began to study on his own. His favorite style was Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, though he studied numerous other styles to incorporate and learn from. He had several long conversations with his older brother in which he’d present his findings about Krav Maga, Ninjutsu, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, and other martial arts styles from which he’d pulled useful information or ways of thinking. This passion started as simple research for a book that he’d been writing, and grew into something he loved doing.
Gabriel was a brilliant kid, in the advanced learning program (ALP) in school. He developed a keen intuition for art and creative writing early on. He began pencil sketching and making video game pixel art as part of a project he’d been working on with friends on a beginner’s programming website called Scratch. He slowly branched out from there, each of his artistic exploits overlapping and feeding each other. His writing and the games he played gave him more reason, more subjects, to draw, and eventually he branched into digital painting to bring more life to his art. He grew in stages as his interests expanded, each causing the others to grow.
There is a ton more we could tell about Gabriel, like his absolutely accepting and kind-hearted disposition, and that he was the best friend you would ever want to know; but time and space are limited. Just know that for the short 18 years he occupied this planet, he left quite an impact on the people who knew him. He is described as easy to be with and always quick to crack a joke even in the most tense situations. It was… really, really hard to say goodbye it still doesn’t feel real but even though he isn’t here in the flesh, the warmth of his memory remains. He will be loved and missed by everyone he touched.
He is survived by his parents, Ted and Dierdre Jeske; and his siblings, Andrew, Nathan, Caris, and Samuel; as well as many family and friends who live locally as well as across the globe.
Pastor Tiskono Cornelius Crawford will officiate a Celebration of Gabriel’s’ Life Service on Saturday, May 16, 2020. Please contact the Jeske family for more details.