The Clarendon County community said goodbye this week to an 18-year-old Sumter man whose "attitude and strength in Christ is one that made an impression on each and every individual he crossed paths with," according to friends and family.
Jonathan Luke Hermanson died Friday, Jan. 13, 2017, from injuries received in an automobile wreck two days earlier on Silver Road.
Born in Sumter, he was a son of Stephen D. Hermanson and Angela Mathis Hermanson. A member of Harmony Presbyterian Church in Sumter, he was an employee of Manning's Simpson Hardware store.
"I first met Luke about a year-and-a-half or two years ago at Central Carolina, and he was doing dual enrollment and I was majoring in natural resource management, and he was asking me about it and wanted to possibly major in that," said friend Matthew Evans. "He also helped steer me in the right direction for getting on to Simpsons. For lack of better words, he was a great person to be around. He always knew how to strike up a conversation and literally always made you smile, because he was one that had basically a great big smile. If it involved the outdoors, he was involved in it. He had a great Christian faith, and his outlook on life was inspiring."
Daniel Knauer knew Hermanson from their time together in the youth group at Harmony Church.
'I really became good friends with Luke on a mission trip to Quebec, Canada, with Harmony Church," said Knauer. "Luke was one of the kindest people I've ever met. He was very encouraging and uplifting to anyone he came in contact with. I never once heard him talk down to someone or about someone. He put God first and loved people extremely well."
"He was the only freshman on the trip," said Knauer. "That summer brought so much joy in so many ways, but one of the best will forever be our friendship. The lasting memories of that trip will live forever in my heart and the hearts of those there."
Brandon Frazier was Hermanson's best friend. The pair had known each other for three years.
"You are my brother and my best friend; you loved e when it was hard and easy," Frazier wrote on Hermanson's Facebook page. "I can't explain the peace of knowing that you are walking alongside our Creator, that you stood before the throne of God and, oh, how magnificence that would be. Today, you destroyed Satan. You have no worries of sin anymore, for God has made you new once again."
He said his friend's passing was made easier by knowing that he will see him again someday.
"I will see you again one day," he said. "And when that day comes, I know we are going to pick up right where we left off."
Knauer said he'd never met anyone like Hermanson.
"I've never met someone that so genuinely made you feel loved the way Luke did," he said. "I never once heard him talk bad about someone, and he always had a smile on his face. I remember being a leader for a junior high mission trip in our home town, the same week that the senior high were having their mission trip. I asked the junior high who was someone from the senior high that they looked up to and why."
Almost every single one Knauer asked answered Hermanson's name.
"When asked why, they said that he never says anything that he doesn't have to, he leads well and with intention, he's nice to them and he never puts them down," Frazier said. "Finally, they said that he lives a Godly life, and that's the life they want to live."
Survivors besides his parents of Sumter include four brothers, Jacob Hermanson (Morgan), Benjamin Hermanson (Kristian), Stephen C. Hermanson, Samuel Hermanson; three sisters, Katie Maggard (Stephen), Rebekah Hermanson, and Merianna Hermanson; and his maternal grandmother, Charlotte Mathis.
Funeral Services were held Wednesday at Harmony Church with Rev. Drew Choate officiating.
Burial was held Evergreen Memorial Park cemetery. in Sumter
Memorials may be made to Tracy’s Camp, P. O. Box 463, Pinewood, SC 29125 and you may also donate on-line to TracysCamp.com.
Frazier said he is unsure exactly "why God called Luke home."
"I don't understand why," he said. "But I loved Luke. Many people loved Luke. He won't be forgotten. And whatever sorrow I feel, whatever pit I have in my stomach, it's eased by the fact that I know God looked at him and said, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'"
