Swofford

The winter evening was mild on Feb. 5, 1987, when he came into the world. I cut the umbilical cord that attached him to his mother, and took him into my arms…he looked up at me with that ever-smiling “James” face…he had just met his Father on earth. I will never forget. As his earthly Father, I deeply loved my son and I welcomed him as he cuddled in my arms. On that day in February at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, his mother Ginger Bauler, James and I became a family

As he grew, his intellect startled me. He would ask questions like…” Dad, does the night always turn into day.” As a youth growing up, he was active in Little League Baseball, Cub Scouts and he spent summer days at Triple C Camp in Albemarle County. In the elementary schools of Charlottesville, he was cited for his very creative artwork and tested with advanced vocabulary skills. We camped and hiked together with Boy Scouts. He struggled in school to get the work done…it was almost as if he was bored with the mundane…his mind was so active. Watching and helping him to grow to be a man was my hardest job but it was easy because I loved him and taught him relevance, order and discipline and meaning in life. He was smart…no…brilliant. He solved problems that baffled me. I taught him to love his mother above all and all other people. He had a deeply loving heart for all creatures great and small. He became an accomplished skateboarder while struggling in high school for two years. To give him a leg up, I enrolled him in a focused school, New Dominion School in Buckingham County, Virginia. There he accumulated strong disciplinary skills, becoming a leader of his class, and excelled in his studies. He graduated in 2004 from New Dominion but during that year, he completed the requirements for his Eagle Scout Award and was inducted into one of Boy Scouts’ highest honor fraternities, The Order of the Arrow. Back in Charlottesville, I enrolled him in Renaissance School for gifted students. He excelled but felt a need to be in the public school system and attended Monticello High School his senior year and graduated in 2006. While working at two jobs, he earned an Associate’s Degree in Psychology from Piedmont College in 2013, and in 2016 he entered Virginia Commonwealth University to major in psychology.

The unfortunate suicide of his mother in December of 2017 caused significant trauma in his life. He could not get through the grief. Then, followed sheltering in place for the Pandemic in January 2020, he moved to Bellair farm to live with me and his stepmother. He was uncompromising about keeping the family safe and was practicing all good measures to keep the family safe. Then, VCU closed the campus and required all students to practice distant learning. This caused additional stress.

For reasons that confound me, probably always will and cannot be seen, but in what I saw and believe to be a very dark miasma of self-doubt, he chose to leave this world at 3:40 on Tuesday 15th of June. Now, he is with his Father in heaven. I hope he has Model A Deluxe Phaetons for you to drive wherever you are

I miss you James, I love you Son and I’ll see you real soon.

At 11 a.m., on 14 Aug. 2021, in La Grange at the Engbrock Swofford family cemetery plot, we will set his ashes to rest next to “Mom” his grandmother whom he loved so much and who loved him. We will follow with a celebration of a life way to short, but so outstanding in its being at the Engbrock home at 738 N. Franklin Street in La-Grange.

James is the Great Grandson of Henry and Alvina Kucera Engbrock, Grandson of Harry and Henrian Swofford and Son of Don Swofford of Charlottesville Virginia.

Family and friends can view and sign the guestbook online at www.lagrangefunerals.com.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Koenig-Belvill Funeral Home & Cremations in La Grange.