Jude was born in 1952 on a farm in Frederick, Maryland, where he grew up helping his father raise his younger siblings after his mother's death when he was twelve. At eighteen, he enlisted in the military to alleviate financial burdens on his family (one less mouth to feed) and was deployed to Vietnam in 1970. He was stationed in the Central Highlands. This region was a major area of operations during the Vietnam War, Jude was involved in the Battle of Kontum in May of 1972.
The following year, Jude was wounded while attempting to evacuate civilians, earning him a Purple Heart. Upon returning home, he discovered his father was fighting a war of his own with lung cancer. Jude immediately took over the farm's responsibilities during his recovery.
After his father's remission in 1977, Jude embarked on a journey, traveling across Europe - he left with a plane ticket in his pocket and nowhere to stay. He dabbled in various jobs, stayed in hostiles or rented a room while touring Europe. There he learned to play the guitar and experienced life to the fullest. He met a young woman named Ashley in France and after just six weeks of dating, they were married. She returned to the states with him to meet his family. The pair was inseparable and after a year of studying carpentry, Jude bought a plot of land so they could begin work on building their own home. Ashley worked on getting her citizenship and Jude was planning to use the GI Bill to go to college once the house was done. However, he had just started his first semester when tragedy struck - Ashley was killed in a car accident, leaving him devastated. He dropped out and went back to working as a carpenter so he could manage expenses and keep the house.
Remaining in Maryland, Jude settled into a residential construction job, finding solace in his work and community. He began to work with habitat for humanity building houses. His father warned him he was avoiding his feelings by diving into work. Jude wasn't stupid. Of course he was. But it was rewarding work and before he knew it, years had rolled over his head. His father's second battle with lung cancer didn't end well and the man was laid to rest next to his mother in 1990.
By then his sister and brother had both married and had kids and Jude found he loved being an uncle. He spoiled the kids rotten and handed them back to their parents. Even after they moved closer to Annapolis, he stayed in Frederick – it was his home, where his friends were and where Ashley was buried.
When the flu spread in the summer of 2002, Jude did what he could as his neighbors one by one fell sick. He helped fetch medication for the elderly and made sure everyone had food and water. Eventually, there was no one left…
His father’s farm had since been sold but he stopped back by to check on the animals or rather what was left of them. He lingered for a while and eventually let the animals that would survive alone go and piled the rest into a truck – mostly chickens and hit the road heading towards the city in an attempt to find other survivors.
