A Day to Remember an Amazing Person – Jeffe Ellis

I attribute my marriage to Jeff Ellis. I met Jeff five years ago kayaking in Oregon. As a stranger to a new world of kayaking, Jeffe greeted me with a smile and impacted my life more than many people I have known my entire life. I spent the afternoon with Jeffe and was introduced to many of his friends in the kayaking community. He was just a blip in a six week kayaking trip that started the rest of my life. A month later, Jeffe passed away kayaking. I heard the news while on the California Salmon. Everyone I had met was attending his memorial service including my road trip buddy. The next thing I knew I found myself in Sacramento surrounded by all of Jeff’s friends and family; including my soon to be husband, Eric Seymour. I will never forget Jeff and will always think of him on my wedding day. I can’t thank him enough for bringing Eric and I together. Below is a tribute to Jeff from his father.
Loss of a Son
by Jim Ellis, Sr.

“A child was born just the other day, he came to us in the usual way……”, and that was the last “usual” think about Jeffrey David, aka the Bear, jefe, big un, jd, poke, bam bam, and mostly just Jeff. I have sat down to write to thank all of you several times, but the monitor kept getting blurry. There is no way to describe the pain we feel on the loss of our son, he was many things to many people, but the most important is friend. The many testimonials from the many segments of his life all have a central theme, that is that he instantly touched your soul and cared about you deeply. Jeffy shared his favorite movies with his mother, such as the goonies, legally blond, something about Mary, and laughed out loud shamelessly. He shared music and dancing with many of you because music truly was in his soul. To those of you who did not have the pleasure of seeing him, imagine a man 6′ 4″, 270 pounds break dancing. Now picture him getting into a play boat that is maybe as long as he is. Although we were not able to share his whitewater experiences first hand, we did vica