Give Thanks...To Know Them Before They're Gone

 We never truly know another person--I wonder many times if we truly know ourselves. The best we can do is judge each other based on a few factors, the things they do (infinitely more important than the things they say...), an perhaps the biggest factor, how they make you feel.

Today, we lost one of the good ones.

And it stinks.

We moved from our previous neighborhood almost three years ago. In a way, it's been a lifetime, but in other ways, it's like we moved last year. Time if funny that way. Having lived on the same street for five decades, you get to know the area, the homes, the yards, the streets, and especially the people. I can't tell you definitively when his family moved in, but they were a staple, part of the community like a strong tree standing proud against a brilliant blue sky. 

Over the years, the family moved into a larger home just up the street. I still remember while out on a walk seeing his car motor up the hill, always giving each other a wave, but what I remember most were the conversations we had, especially around Thanksgiving.

Why Thanksgiving?

Because that's when Kent's spirit truly shined. 

Kent would stand up in church and announce that if anyone needed a place to go for Thanksgiving dinner, hit him up. If I'm remembering correctly, he would prepare a huge meal to be served on Friday. Even though it's been years since we were there at Thanksgiving, I don't see why he would stop his gracious tradition. I distinctly remember talking to him about it. Food's expensive--even more so now. He said in his humble way that he did it because he didn't want anyone missing out on a good meal, plus, I know he loved doing it. Perhaps no one got more out of his selfless act than he did.

I don't know the details of what happened, and in a way, they're not important. I don't need to know them to know what really matters...that a family man has passed on, a man whose example touched my life and the lives of so many people. I'm grateful to have known him, grateful to call him friend. Though the tree is gone, it's shadow will never fade. God's speed, Kent.