Family

I have to be honest. I have been struggling to think of how I should write this post since Saturday.

See what happened is that we got a call late Saturday afternoon that Daryl’s brother unexpectedly passed away. What a shock it was to the whole family and it’s left everyone so sad and heartbroken.

Since there’s so many things to be sad about I decided to write about the good things that I remember him by.

How I will always remember Daryl’s brother is that he is a family man. Having his family around him (and not just his kids and grandkids) was probably the most important thing that I can think of to him. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him without a smile on his face and always asking if you needed help with something or another. He never thought twice about lending a hand and many people benefited from this wonderful trait that he had. Not once had I ever heard him complain or get mad or even raise his voice. It’s kind of amazing isn’t it? I mean he was just the kind of guy.

But now that he’s gone and his family is missing him terribly and the outpour of the community is amazing. One of the many things that has happened since Saturday is that his brother was the caretaker of the church and when the news got around that he had passed away on Saturday, a group of men from town went to the church on Sunday afternoon with their lawn mowers and mowed all the church grounds to make it nice for the funeral. Seriously how cool is that? If that doesn’t make you smile and be grateful for small midwest towns, well I’m thinking not much will.

So I titled this post as family. Even though his brother is gone his family will always remember him. They more than likely will continue the Sunday night family meals when everyone would get together around the kitchen table for a good Sunday meal and the topic of Rodeos and Country Music might switch to memories of days gone by. But nevertheless the family conversations will go on and soon, maybe not this week or next week, but soon some of the smiles and familiar laughter will be heard again in the kitchen. And everyone is just a little more blessed being able to have shared part of the past 66 years with this great guy.

We’ll miss you

Love,

Your Family