Mourners Remember Valley Southwoods Student Who Could Coax a Laugh From Anyone

The Rev. John Augspurger on Tuesday called on mourners to rely on the Scriptures for comfort as they said goodbye to Justin Nimmo — a 15-year-old at  who died at his home on May 24, .

Under the pitched ceiling of the packed sanctuary of the , Justin’s classmates and friends comforted one another. Parents cradled their teenage children as if they were infants. Many wore green Iowa Donor Network wristbands, reminding mourners that as an organ and tissue donor, Justin’s life will continue.

Justin was remembered as “an exceptional child and outstanding student … who loved sports, video games, the outdoors and his black Labrador dog, Jag. He dreamed of becoming a marine biologist, Augspurger said, and had just started tae kwon do lessons the Tuesday before his death.

Justin was a preemie, weighing less than 3 pounds at birth, and his father’s wedding ring would fit around his ankle – “a fighter” from the beginning, Augspurger said, who wasn’t afraid of anything.

“It’s days like this that draw us on the mercy of God,” he said. “What do we really believe, what do we hold as true?”

Minister Tells Mourners to Think About Their Own Lives

As mourners met with Justin’s family before the service, a DVD loop showed him with his parents, grandparents and his brother, Koelten, who he “idolized” Augspurger said. Many left messages on poster-boards, their corners anchored by pictures of a smiling Justin, that told a story of a friend who could force a laugh out of the darkest recesses of another’s despair and who believed true family transcends blood.

Some were chilling. “See you soon,” someone with backslash handwriting wrote in purple ink.

Recognizing the undercurrent of fear about a rash of teen suicides in central Iowa, Augspurger held a group of young people to his right in a steady gaze as he said:  

“You are going to remember Justin. You’re going to have lots of thoughts as you remember him; let them be your prayer, and as you put his life in perspective, maybe you can put your own life in perspective.”

Parents and students in learned of Justin’s death Friday in an email from district Superintendent Peter Ansingh. Justin’s was the second death of a Valley Southwoods student in a month. In April,  killed himself.

In January, after two Johnston teens killed themselves on the same weekend in apparently unrelated incidents, mental health professionals  Iowa Youth Survey statistics that showed 10 percent of eighth-grade students – 3,780 students – report having attempted suicide at least once.

Justin is survived by his mother and stepfather, Jenifer and David Grissom; sisters Jaiden Wallander, Kassiday Grissom, Samantha Nimmo and Tamilee Duff; brothers Koelten and Tyler Grissom; and his grandparents, Carolyn and Wayne Livengood, Barbara and Vernon Busch, and Marieta and David Grissom Sr.

He was preceded in death by his father, Gregg Nimmo, and his grandfather, Howard Nimmo.

Burial followed the service at Silent City Cemetery in Monroe.