I think of you often and I miss you.
You taught me…
To give, with no expectation of anything in return
How to treat friends and neighbors
to build things
to help those that need help
to swing an axe
the value of the world
to cook
that a penny saved is a penny earned
that making others happy is the best thing you can do
to fix things
that everyone and everything is important
to respect nature
that there is noting greater than love
the value of a hard days work
what a great person really was
I will never forget…
Building Lenny’s log home with you
Asking for and getting a sip of your drink starting at age 2-3
The house you built for us
The way you hugged people when we went to visit and the joy they got from it
“Helping” you fix the old Mill
The first and only time I heard you say fuck
Playing Scrabble with you after dinner while mom was sleeping on the couch
The story of when you were working on a ladder building Orville’s house and I was playing below you… You say “don’t play under there I might drop something.” Me – “what are you going to drop?”
The way you made people smile
Seeing you in the morning sitting at the table with Black Baby, your cat, sitting on your lap, reading yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, as I left for my morning run
Your aversion to waste
The pride in your voice when I told you I had changed the transmission in my car (in an unheated garage at minus 21 degrees) during college.
The love mom had for you
Eating the cheese you made
Your skis that were 6’6” long when the trend was for shorter skis
Eating breakfast with you before mom and George got up in the morning
The one time I saw you in a physical altercation as you pulled Duane away from his son who he was hitting
The way people respected you
The story “Loudmouth and Furcap” would tell about watching a herd of elk come down into Hasley Basin only to look up and see you “right in the middle of the herd”
Your reverence for nature and the natural world
Seeing the Cabin you grew up in in Montana
The way you made people smile
Watching you school guys 30 years younger than you in the wood splitting contest at the Carbondale fair
Driving the tractor as you stood beside me
Your understanding or the dangers of radiation which ultimately brought me to you
eating your fresh baked bread
Incomplete… but how could it ever be complete. I only aspire to be half the person you were. I wish our time could have been longer, but I like everyone you touched am so lucky to have had you in my life.
