Edward Jens Matthews, 17, died Friday, Sep. 10, 1982 in the Idaho State School and Hospital in Nampa, following a lengthy illness. He was born Oct. 17, 1965, in Montpelier, to John R. and Margo Lynn Matthews. He was a member of the LDS Church. When he was about five years old, he contracted a very rare disease which caused him to lose his sight and gradually all of his faculties. He had to go to the State Hospital in July 1981, where he remained until his death. Survivors include his parents, one sister, Tracy, grandparents, A. J. "Cub" Bentsen and Pauline Bentsen, Julia Nye, all of Montpelier; one great-grandmother, Ann Barkdull, Georgetown. several uncles, aunts and cousins. He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Nile Matthews, Dorothy Matthews and Edward Grenville "Pete" Shepherd. Funeral services were held Wednesday, Sep 15, 1982 at 1 p.m. in the Montpelier Fourth Ward Chapel. Burial was in the Montpelier City Cemetery.
His sister, Tracy Matthews Beck wrote: "When Jens was born, he was a prefect and very happy boy who was normal in all ways. When he was about 5-6 years of age, he started to lose his sight. He lost it so fast that I hardly remember the glasses that he had to wear. Right after that he started to have grand-mal seizures. My parents took him to a specialist at Primary Children's Hospital around this time. The specialist told my parents that they had seen rare cases of what he was going through. The specialist said there was no name for it because it was so rare that no one had studied about it too much. He said that in all cases that they had seen that Jens would grow up normal but his brain would stay somewhat in a child's state. He probably would slowly lose all his normal body functions and in most cases he had seen the child had died anywhere between 10-14 years of age. This did happen with Jens but he lived until a month before his 17th Birthday. I remember how he had to be dressed and bathed. We also had to watch him closely because of the seizures. The more he went down hill his seizures increased every year. He had his dog who watched over him. (Although the dog was not trained he sensed this and stuck right by Jens's side most of the time.) About the last 1-2 years of Jens's life he would have several seizures a day. it got so hard on my parents at last that we had to put him in the state hospital. It was about 200 miles away from our home so we would go and get him as often as we could and on holidays to come home and visit for a week a so. I recall how bad my mom felt about this and never really got over it. It brings me peace to know that she has now joined him again. (Even though I miss them I know they are both in a better place.) Jens passed away a month and 7 day before his birthday. On his first birthday without him, my parents and I had gone somewhere, When we came home that night Jens's best companion, his dog, was dead. (This is the collie dog in his picture.) As I look back there are so many things that I wish I had been old enough to understand about what was going on. But I will say after having someone that close to you having special needs it did make me a better person and more understanding with people and not to tease them over things they could not help. We all have some kind of special need if you actually think about it, I guess its just the way you may look at it."