Jacob Tyler Romriell

Jacob Tyler Romriell was born on November 14, 1990 to Philip and Tami Romriell in Pocatello, Idaho. When Jake was born and the nurse placed him in his mother’s arms, Jake gave her a great big smile. From then on, his mother always referred to Jake as her “smilin’ Jake”.

When Jake’s oldest brothers, Jeromy and Justin, found out they would get another brother, they thought it was fine, but Brittney, the older sister was less than thrilled. However, that all changed when Jake came home. From then on, Jake was her baby. She loved helping to feed, change, bathe, and dress him—which was a huge help to her mom.

Jake was always a go-getter and started walking when he was only 9 months old. He was so small that everyone was shocked to see him running around. But that was our Jake, always ready to do the next thing.

As Jake started school, he always had plenty of friends and loved to laugh and play outside. He loved playing basketball and baseball and was proficient in both. School was frustrating to Jake in some respects. For example, in math, Jake was able to solve the problem in his head and thought it was lame that he had to show his work.

When Jake was 13, his family had gathered at the Romriell cabin at Island Park for the annual Romriell 4th of July reunion. As the cabin is situated on the river, Jake’s mom was constantly counting and checking to see where her 5 children were. Later in the day, Jake’s mom noticed that Jake was nowhere to be found. She ran into the cabin and found Jake sound asleep. Knowing that something had to be wrong, she scheduled an appointment with the doctor upon their return.

On the way to the appointment, the Spirit whispered to Jake’s mom that she needed to tell the doctor to take a sample of the fluid in Jake’s knee that he had been complaining about recently and that the sample would come back as strep. She did so and the doctor was shocked to discover that she was right.

The doctor then checked Jake’s heart and discovered was seriously wrong and made an appointment with the cardiologist. It was determined that Jake had contracted rheumatic fever and that it had settled in his heart. Causing the heart to swell to twice its normal size and some of the valves to leak. This diagnosis dramatically changed the trajectory of Jake’s life. With his heart condition, Jake wasn’t able to do many of the sports that he was interested in. However, he found that he could do skateboarding and snowboarding—and was a little crazy on both.

When Jake was 14, he got his first job working at McDonald’s. He was excited to start making his own money and made plans to buy a video game player when he had enough money. Within the first few days of Jake’s training, the general manager turned to the other new employees and, pointing at Jake, told them, “You’d better follow everything he does, because in 6 months he may be your boss!

In high school and after graduation, Jacob met some of his best friends. Filo, Corey, Tate, Tanner, and the two Tylers were inseparable and became more than just friends—they became a band of brothers. A group of brothers who often times would live together sharing fun and crazy times.

When Jake was about 20 he was examined by a family friend and cardiologist, Ben Call. Dr. Call tried to calm Jacob’s fear of dying early, but told him that he would need to have a heart valve replacement when he was 26—which subsequently occurred.

A heart-valve replacement is one of the most difficult surgeries that anyone can go through and Jake woke up from the surgery believing he was in hell. While Jake was recovering, his mother stayed in the room with him. One day Jake’s sister called and wanted to talk to him. While Jake was talking, he remarked that he was experiencing excruciating pain in his arm.

Jake’s mom immediately alerted the doctors and they discovered that Jake had a blood clot somewhere in his arm. When talking about the best course of action, the doctors decided there was only two choices: cut off his arm or try to break up the blood clot. However, if they broke up the blood clot, some clots may go to his brain or to his heart.

With this awful prognosis, Jake’s dad, who had worked with patients in a clinic for nearly 20 years and who had an extraordinary sense of touch, pushed the team of doctors aside and stepped in. Jake’s dad gently rubbed his hands up and down Jake’s arm and within minutes immediately identified where the blood clot was. Thus, allowing the doctors to perform a much less drastic method of clearing the clot.

After Jake was released from the hospital, the long journey of mending began. In true Jake style, he recovered remarkably well with his home health nurse commenting that she had rarely seen someone work so hard to recover. Although Jake eventually recovered, his body was never the same as the surgery resulted in several ribs being out of place and his bone structure being off-centered. This condition caused Jake to be in pain almost daily.

To counteract this malady, Jake became very interested in health, nutrition, and body building. Jake read many books on the subject and became very well versed and shared that information to whomever was interested.

Jake liked to read a lot of different books on a variety of subjects to include autobiographies, money management, religion, history, self-help books, and fiction. Jake also wrote poetry, rap lyrics, and his own deep thoughts about life.

When Jake was 21 and his younger brother, Jordan was 19, their sister, Brittney invited them to live with her and her husband in Kennewick, Washington. During this time, Brittney became a second mom to them again—though they didn’t appreciate it as much when they were little. Brittney taught them how to manage their money, get a car, and get a job. Jake worked two jobs one at FedEx and one at Fujiyama. Jake was a hard worker and his bosses and co-workers admired his hard work and friendly disposition. Within a short amount of time Jake and Jordan were able to move into their own apartment. Unfortunately, this did not work out for Jake as he continued to fight his demons.

After returning back to Idaho, Jake worked at Sizzler’s, where again, the customers loved his pleasant, professional attitude and his bosses loved his work ethic and friendly personality. Jake tried construction, but found the cold weather environment too hard on him physically.

Jake then acquired a position at Amy’s where he worked as a cook on the sauce deck. This was a very intensive, exacting, and labor-intensive position. Within a few short months, Jake’s excellent work ethic and fun personality, management began taking notice and ultimately offered him a job as a trainer. Jake enjoyed helping his co-workers to find better and more efficient ways to do things—and his co-workers did too! However, management felt he should be trying to catch people doing wrong things so that he could write them up—something Jake absolutely wouldn’t do.

So, Jacob left Amy’s in November of 2022 and went to Utah to try construction again with some friends. Again, the cold weather kicked his butt and he returned to Idaho, this time with a girl that he had been seeing on and off again for six years. Jenika made Jacob so happy and it was fun to see her not take his guff and him being so kind and loving to her. Jenika and Jacob even made plans for the future—a future that was sadly cut short.

Early April, Jacob contracted a bronchial infection and fever that he just couldn’t kick and refused to go to the doctor. Over the next couple of weeks, some of the symptoms got better and others never did. On the 25th of April, he became very ill and refused to eat and take his medication. Basically, he never left his bed. With much yelling and prodding, Jake’s mom and Jenika got him dressed and put him in the car where Jenika took him to the E.R.

Jenika notified his parents that Jake was really sick and to join her at the E.R. Multiple tests were run, including a C.T. scan. They discovered that, due to Jake’s rheumatic fever, his heart was compromised and infected which caused infection and clots to be spread throughout his body. The most critical was the clot that ended up in his brain which contributed to a brain bleed that caused permanent brain damage to the cerebral cortex, halting all involuntary bodily functions, included breathing and swallowing. Jake was intubated on a ventilator to support the bodies oxygen need, because he could not breath on his own.

Family and friends came to visit in those last hours, where they spoke, touched, and hugged their Jake. Much love was felt in the room even though it was excruciatingly painful for everyone. Jake lay perfectly still for approximately 18 hours with no response to stimuli. Jake’s heart stopped beating at 5:45 p.m. Sunday, April 30th and subsequently everyone else’s world stopped.

Funeral services honoring Jake will be held on Saturday, May 6, 2023 at noon at the Gwen Ward LDS Chapel, 1433 Gwen Drive, Pocatello.  His family will receive friends and others at a viewing to take place on Friday evening from 6-8 p.m. at Wilks Funeral Home in Chubbuck, and again on Saturday from 10:30-11:45 a.m. prior to the funeral services at the church.  Interment will take place at Restlawn Memorial Gardens, 2864 S. 5th Avenue, Pocatello.  Rain is in the forecast and umbrellas are recommended as continued memorial activities are planned at the cemetery.

In lieu of plants or flowers, support may be sent to the family via Venmo (@Debby-Garvin) or mail to Romriell Family, P.O. Box 4361, Pocatello, Idaho 83205-4361.

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