www.bradleycox.org

First of all we would like to thank Brad and Marcelle Cox for being
there for our family, especially for including Ben in Operation
Blessing's "Living Water Project", which is a generous donation in
Ben's memory that gives the gift of water for poor families in India.

Ben was born at 4:03am, weighing in at 9 lbs. 6 ozs. and 21 1/2
inches long. When Ben was born to his parents, Dennis and Janet,
and big sister Crystal, our family was now complete. We felt very
lucky and blessed to have the best of two worlds. A girl and a boy
who were healthy and happy.

Ben brought our family great joy. He was happy go lucky, fun, and
easy to be around with a funny sense of humor, he always knew
how to make us laugh. But Ben also had a very strong will about
him.

Ever since Ben was a young boy, he had always been involved in all
different kinds of sports including karate, baseball, basketball,
snowboarding, skateboarding, wrestling, and football.

Though he had a natural athletic ability, he never felt the love,
passion, and drive that he experienced until he started riding a
dirtbike. He started at age 10 riding an XR100, then moving up to a
XR200. He quickly moved up to a YZ85, then went to a KTM125,
finishing with a Yamaha 250F.

At age 13, when Ben was in 7th grade, he began racing Cross
Country and totally enjoyed it. At age 14, in 8th grade, he was
introduced to motocross and fell in love with it. He continued to
race both cross country and motocross. By the time he was 15, a
freshman at Alhambra High School, he lived for racing. Ben found
his true passion and rapidly excelled in motocross racing.

When Ben started high school he was not very excited. He felt he
should be home schooled so he could have more time practicing his
dirtbike riding. He would say he didn't need Spanish, Math, English,
etc., because he was going to be a pro racer and would not need
such subjects.

When I dropped Ben off for his first day of high school, I tried to
enlighten him by telling him how this was the best time of his life
and about how many new friends he was about to meet. His
response was "Mom, I have enough friends" and he shut the car
door. My thought was "Impossible at age 15 and you have enough
friends".

Most 15 year old boys are trying to figure themselves out and are
interested in girls and girlfriends. Ben had himself pretty figured out
with a lot of confidence. His motto was "My motorcycle is my
girlfriend", until he met his first love, Courtney. Those words were
never to leave his lips again.

Ben was totally dedicated to his racing and was truly at his happiest
we had ever seen. Losing him was the worst experience our family
has ever had to deal with and we still struggle to deal with. We know
we gave him the best life any boy could ever want and we know he
was doing something he loved.

In Ben's young life, he touched so many. It was apparent as we
witnessed an overwhelming amount of people that came to
celebrate and honor Ben's life. His words went through my head,
"Mom, I have enough friends". My thought was, "Ben, you were
trying to tell me you had enough friends", which was obvious on
that very sad and emotional day.

Ben we are proud of you for following your dream and being true to
your heart. We think of you daily and we miss you like crazy.

We love you, Mom, Dad, and Sis.