Son, Brother, Cousin, and Friend
My name is Susan Neese and Chad was my first son. He was born on August 11, 1988 and grew up in Kearns, Utah along with his younger brother Chase. When he was six years old his dad Mike and I divorced, which hit Chad especially hard. He was close to his Dad and the divorce affected him for a very long time. When Chad was 15 his dad died causing pain that would never go away, and it was around that time that Chad developed symptoms of depression and anxiety. Ironically, Chad was the same age when he lost his dad as I was when I lost my mom.
I was not alone in raising Chad and Chase, we had family on both sides that helped give them the best childhood possible and contributed in many ways; one of my sisters family lived behind us and the boys spent the better part of their days and dinnertimes at their cousins house as I worked full time and went to college to earn my degree. My boys were raised with their cousins as brothers, always together.
The boys have five wonderful aunts who all helped at different times to take care of them (13 close first cousins) as well as help from his grandparents. Chad had a special relationship with each family member and always valued the good times spent with everyone. It truly takes a village and our family came through and continues to do so for us. We had so much fun together and went through a lot of tough times; but we laughed a lot too.
Just before Chad turned 19 in 2007, I remarried and moved to Illinois. My husband had three boys of his own and together having five boys was a lot of fun! It was great for us to have an extended family. Chad chose to stay in Utah and Chase moved with me before his sophomore year of high school. It was hard on Chad to be away from me and Chase, but he told me many times how happy he was for us.
In 2013 Chad moved to Miami, Florida, a dream of his to live near the ocean and work on the beach. He worked at a few high-end restaurants like Rare Steakhouse and Positano Ristorante in South Beach. He loved his time in Florida and met some great friends, but he started to struggle there and moved back to Utah in late 2016.
If you truly knew Chad, you knew him to be funny, caring, sensitive, always giving good advice (although rarely taking his own) and boy! could he tell a story. He understood all walks of life because he lived all walks of life. He was the most accepting person I knew. He had the best stories and if you had the pleasure of listening to them, believe me, they were all true, as unbelievable as they seemed.
