“Be mindful of the world around you.” It is a statement that I have expressed to our sons over the years and intended as fatherly advice about the importance of awareness. Easily said, but sometimes difficult for young boys to visualize. I have been able to use our love of Studio Ghibli films for teachable moments about being attentive of the world we live in. More than just telling a story, these beautifully animated films offer life lessons on self-discovery, perseverance and the appreciation of everyday moments.
As we move forward into the third JOLTeON! Memorial Game Days, I am reminiscing on how Ethan shared (and for Noah as he continues to share) these films to build community, cherish relationships and embrace change across a diverse group of friends and soon-to-be friends. These are stories worth sharing.
Check out our Game Days schedule for ideas on this summers theater lineup and other ways to share the stories of Studio Ghibli.
Ethan, 25 Today… I have been preparing for the days to celebrate your milestones since you were born all those years ago. To encourage you and help you know you have what it takes. In the joy of being your mom, I choose to continue to see and celebrate today on this earthly timeline… I know you hear as I speak out the joy of your life. I know you see as I make your favorites for us to remember you with… homemade Mac ‘n Cheese with the sharpest cheddar, charcuterie fixings, sushi rolls, and the simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yet, wishing all the while to hear your voice and laughter in the day.
25… When I say “happy birthday…” you will answer me from your heavenly place… words I cannot hear where I am on this earthly path …Radio Silence. So, I will turn to a few recordings which continue to stir within me the deeper longing that will never leave me. Pastor Levi speaks of this Radio Silence in chapter 22 of his book “The Last Supper on the Moon” (an aside: fitting it should be the 22nd chapter actually, if you find it in your heavenly library, I highly recommend it… on second thought, you are with Jesus whom the book is about!). I cannot help but know that the Radio Silence is broken for you now… as you stand whole and complete in the throne room of Jesus presence.
25…Standing at this doorway today, the one where you grow older elsewhere was supposed to be about watching your earthly adventures. I desperately want to see you soar with your many talents, such as in the bygone days of hockey life. Honestly, I am still in the stands shouting your name as I envision you skate effortlessly by … go! go! go bud go!… …go! go! go ETHAN go!… Instead, the doorway represents the separation that death is until I am beckoned homeward to the same shore. Your dash, the line between two dates, is done. How you lived in the dash is remarkable! So, I stand in the doorway now and choose to see my joy for you on your 25th birthday.
25…If you were here what would I say to impart the significance of this day? As I remember all the details of your 22 years of this earthly life, I think of how your courage, capacity and intensity interrupted our lives from the beginning. How you land on your feet, sure and strong, every where you go. How the Lord brought you to Purdue University and helped you discover what you were made for. How HE knit within you such an engineering mindset and the characteristics of… “intelligence with innovation, knowledge with great flexibility, a high degree of skill without over-training, fear but not cowardice, bravery without recklessness, self-confidence without egotism, physical skill with humility, frugal, contented, humorous without disproportion, fast reflexes without panic in a crisis, laughter with peculiarity, trusting spirit without lacking curiosity, and quick whit with care for others”. How you built community into the landscape around you, which still lives on to this day. The Lord created you to be the many faceted diamond that President Daniels described on your Graduation Day at Purdue. I know from the deepest joy of being your mom, I will wait for the Lord and I will see Him redeem these days so that I have the chance to yet again see your smile, hear your voice and tell you how much you are loved and that you have what it takes!
Until that day…
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14
Entering 2025 was honestly very difficult. I knew it would mark another year, the 3rd, without Ethan’s physical presence. However, THIS year has another ring to the longing of sharing life with him. It would be his 25th…
In honor of Ethan’s amazing capacity to share life through creativity, artwork and story telling, we have chosen to frame this years remembering activities through his love of Studio Ghibli. To those who choose to remember Ethan with us, we invite you to look back on the years of having him near through the ways he shared it with each of us. I have learned that sharing Ethan’s joyful spirit, now that he is heavenward, brings the color of his life back into focus. So, ending year three provides another chance to remember how he loved all of us by sharing his joys with us.
WHAT: JOLT-ON 2025 Memorial Game Days remembering Ethan through the world of Studio Ghibli
Ethan loved to share his favorite characters and story elements. He found unique ways to weave Ghibli life into the days we were with him.
WHEN: May 30th through June 9th, 2025
This time period starts on Ethan’s 25th Birthday and ends with his Heaven day. You are welcome to extend out into the year ahead if your timeline of remembering is further along in the calendar.
SCHEDULE: Wang Family Events to Remember
Our Family will remember Ethan with the following activities and will share them here during the Memorial Game Days:
Studio Ghibli Film Festival 2025 – check your local movie theater locations for their current schedule of Ghibli fan favorite movies. You can see the full listing of movie features showcased between May 15th and the end of September this year at gkids.com.
If you are in the Fox Valley Illinois area, you might find us at the theater enjoying a box of Mike ‘n Ikes with one of the shows below! May 18th begins with Kiki’s Delivery Service June 22nd – 24th: The Secret World of Arriety July 19th – 23rd: My Neighbor Totoro August 10th – 12th: Grave of the Fireflies August 23rd – 27th: Ponyo September 20th – 24th: Howl’s Moving Castle
Ghibli inspired art/craft activities – we will share with you the joyful ways Ethan brought the characters of Ghibli movies to life.
Ghibli gear. A commemorative Memorial edition t-shirt is available for Ethan’s 25th Birthday. These t-shirts are available from Stickermule.com and showcase the characters of Princess Mononoke as the 2025 JOLT-ON! graphic and are just $19 (we do not make a profit as these are sold at cost through the StickerMule website). Simply a fun way to remember and carry Ethan with us. They ship pretty fast too! Choose from: – San and Moro – Ahitaka and Yakul
TBD: Studio Ghibli Trivia Night – stay tuned for the date!
HOW: Set aside time to remember Ethan through the stories of Studio Ghibli
Here are some creative ideas to encourage you to join us…
Host a Studio Ghibli watch party with your friends and share a new title together. Two of Ethan’s favorites are Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away! Your local library should have the movies for borrowing or stream from your favorite service.
Remember food favorites and gather friends to enjoy them with you… Ghibli inspired snacks, ramen, sushi, gimbap… just to name a few!
Host a Ghibli themed trivia night. Encourage friends in competitive fun with the movies and characters as you gather to remember!
Wear a favorite Ghibli gear/t-shirt on Ethan’s would be 25th birthday (May 30th) and Leap Day (June 9th).
We are looking forward to all the ways you are remembering Ethan as this third year comes to a close! Please share in the comments below. If you have a file or image to include, please email it to jolton@wfour.net and we will add it to your comment post.
As we prepare to remember Ethan on the 3rd anniversary of his Leap Day, please check back for more information on what we are doing to remember him in this year… 2025…
My women’s bible study is a strong force, my heart community. These women are my sisters in Christ in these days as we walk out life together. We have spent over a year together in the book of Romans and recently finished the study of this intense book of Paul’s most inspiring work in sharing Jesus with us in the bible. We all gracefully gave each other space to take it slow, sit with the verses where challenged, grow together. In celebration of it all, our group came together to share and laugh this week.
These women are the best at lifting me up out of the mire of grief and loss. The best at encouraging and praying through the challenges of living life now. We experienced another JOLTeON build together, this time with LEGO’s beautiful flowers! Thank you ladies for sharing your stories at the table and doing this life with me… even in the bricks! You are all amazing!
Looking forward to finishing the second part of our build and continuing to live out the life of the teachings of Paul through Romans with you all.
Let me say it! These flowers are complex and challenging! This is a treasure that I will keep always in remembering our time together!
LEGO Botanical Collections keep growing… encouraging us to always be in awe and wonder of our Lord’s creation even when we are not outside in nature.
The teacher in our midst, Nancy, brought not only the LEGO’s but had these really great trays to help us keep things in place. Dollar Store Find! Thanks for making it happen AND awesome, Nancy!
As June comes to an end, we are grateful for all who joined us in our LEGO challenge. You can always rally anytime throughout the year to remember… just grab your favorite box of LEGO’s and share your creations with us.
When I think of GROOT from Guardians of the Galaxy, it strikes me how much he shares his strength for his friends. No matter the situation, GROOT is found encouraging this band of galaxy trekking guardians. He shows up not only to fight, but also to listen, care, encourage, support, defend, love and laugh with his friends throughout every moment he shares with them…
GROOT is also one of Ethan’s favorite characters! When I consider the friendships he forged in his 22 years, I can see how he encouraged his friends with strength and a gentle, fun-loving spirit.
In these last two years, there are a number of friends that have really stood out with GROOT-like strength as we are walking through the most unimaginable grief of living without Ethan in our days. It is amazing to me to look at how God has provided each of them as encouragement in unique ways. Some I have known for years, some I have only recently met. Some are brave souls whom purposefully show up without our prompting. Some reached out to introduce themselves during the early and hard days when our son first leaped into heaven and are now close at heart. I am blessed to know each and every one and consider them guardians of strength appointed by the Lord Almighty! While I do not always know or understand what HE is up to in my life, I can say for certain the Lord continues to send each of them during times when we need them most…
With that, we sent several LEGO GROOT sets out to our guardian friends around the country during this month of June. GROOT has traveled near and far to places in Illinois, Connecticut, Texas, Wisconsin, and Washington! It has been a blessing to get to know these friends in far places…
I am forever grateful!
Above is GROOT in Connecticut with my sister in the Lord, Kim Wan!
Left… GROOT is in Washington State hanging out with David Farache as he moved across the country!
It has been a joy to share these Random Acts In LEGO with them.
Today, in this second year on Ethan’s Eternity day, we are keeping focus with a LEGO art piece: The Great Wave by Hokusai.
As we have been remembering Ethan in these last ten days through his engineering and builder spirit, we turned our basement into a studio. The purpose: to work through this large memorial build as a family. We have posted below the time-lapse progression of our journey throughout the day. It was finished by days end…
Chapter 1: Unboxing The Great Wave
Chapter 2: Getting Started! Segments 1-3
There is a LEGO audio recording offered in the set for historical info on the artist Hokusai found at this link if you are interested!
Chapter 3: Water Segments 4-6
Chapter 4: Base Layer Complete Segments 7-8
Chapter 5: Making of a Wave Segments 9-10
Chapter 6: Frame Work Segments 11-14
Chapter 7: Finale! Segment 15
Our finished piece! This has been a peaceful way to remember our son. Thanks for sharing the time with us. Please let us know the impact you have felt in the comments below. We will be pulling all 7 chapters together into a full time-lapse video along with music from Joe Hisaishi’s “Princess Mononoke”. in the next few days.. as you can imagine, Hisaishi’s music was playing in the background as we built all day today!
We hope and pray Ethan’s legacy will inspire you to share LEGO’s and God’s love with others in the days ahead this year!
NOTE: Comments are moderated and posted within 24 hours of submission. If you have a file or image to share, please email it to jolton@wfour.net and we will add it to your comment!
Random Acts In LEGO sharing with The Atkinson Family
LEGO Inspiration: UP! House, Groot! and… LEGO Avengers video games!
The Atkinson family joined in on the JOLT-ON! 2024 Memorial Game Days starting on Ethan’s birthday, May 30th, this year. They very thoughtfully were inspired to share LEGO together as a family and with others over these ten days. Here is their update from Nichole…
“Thinking about you and your family today. On Ethan’s birthday the kids thought it would be nice to pick out a new Lego set to work on together. We found the house from the movie Up!, which they felt was just perfect. Then they found Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy and then they were torn. So, they wondered what I thought we should do and were certain I wouldn’t let them have both, but thinking about how they’re only little for a little while and they were actually agreeing on these things, and why we were even having the discussion, I couldn’t say no.
We came home and had dinner and the younger 2 rediscovered (sort of accidentally) a Lego Avengers game for Switch and they played that for hours. They know Ethan loved Splatoon and told me it was okay because they found a Lego video game! So it was like they were doing both! So we worked on the Lego’s together as a family and finished the Up! House over the next 2 nights.
Since Ethan’s birthday they’ve finished both Lego sets together and reminded each other why they are doing them and told and shown our various visitors through the last 10 days why there are Lego’s everywhere and who they are for. The Up! House is now proudly displayed in the China cabinet so it won’t get wrecked, as they worked so hard on it for me to remember Ethan’s birthday and Heaven Day this year.
I miss that contagious smile, the sweetheart of a kid and young man he was… talking video games and young love with him. I miss a complete Wang family unbroken by tragedy, but I love you all so completely.”
Nichole Atkinson
Thank you all for joining us in the LEGO challenge! Your random acts in LEGO sharing over these ten days is so very thoughtful. We are blessed that you all chose to remember Ethan and share his legacy with others. It is just like Ethan to find LEGO in everything… life, play and video games!We will be sending you our 2024 memorial stickers and magnets in gratitude for joining us!
Inspiration: Game Night, LEGO style! When: Friday, June 7th 2024 Where: Feryance House, St. Charles, IL
There is more to our intention of Random Acts In Lego sharing than just handing out LEGO’s everywhere this week! On Friday, June 7th, we gathered together with friends to reminisce and play games. Of course it’s games! That is Ethan’s capacity… he brought people together through games and LEGO has always been a great way to share the fun of games with friends.
On this night, gathering with Ladies in our community, we enjoyed snacks and fellowship around the theme of LEGO games:
LEGO “I SPY”
Left Center Right (Dice Game) with LEGO bricks
LEGO Creator Board Game (a building classic released in 1999!)
LEGO Bingo (we ran out of time for this one but it was on the list!)
Winners received a small LEGO set to keep or share forward. There are so many more game ideas from LEGO… do you have any favorites to share?
