Jere, my step-dad, died 12-12-07. If you have been following at all this blog you will know that he had been battling prostate cancer for around 10 years now so his death was no surprise. He had a peaceful passing shortly after breaking his hip and started his journey in the next phase of his life. He was buried the next day in the very corner of the cemetery of Ciudad Colon, the town he lived in for 30+ years. I went down along with many of the other siblings to support mom and help plan a memorial service. We spent a week working around the house, cleaning, rewiring, rearranging and going through a lot of stuff of Jere's. It was a very therapeutic time in which we laughed and cried and raged at each other each dealing with it in his or her own way. The memorial service was filled with much of the same but this time with about 120 or so people who knew and loved Jere. It was amazing to hear t
he memories and stories ... all the different ways that people remembered this great man. He really had an amazing impact on many people's lives through his relentless service. In so many ways he was such an amazing example of taking the "me" and making it the "we". It seemed that he tended to put others ahead of himself most of the time and really focussed on other people and their needs and acted on what he saw. The result of that was clearly seen in the quantity of those who came to remember him and the things they said during the memorial. I was so honored to be a part of that. I/we have been very blessed to have someone that strong and caring in our lives...
Jere, my step-dad, died 12-12-07. If you have been following at all this blog you will know that he had been battling prostate cancer for around 10 years now so his death was no surprise. He had a peaceful passing shortly after breaking his hip and started his journey in the next phase of his life. He was buried the next day in the very corner of the cemetery of Ciudad Colon, the town he lived in for 30+ years. I went down along with many of the other siblings to support mom and help plan a memorial service. We spent a week working around the house, cleaning, rewiring, rearranging and going through a lot of stuff of Jere's. It was a very therapeutic time in which we laughed and cried and raged at each other each dealing with it in his or her own way. The memorial service was filled with much of the same but this time with about 120 or so people who knew and loved Jere. It was amazing to hear t
he memories and stories ... all the different ways that people remembered this great man. He really had an amazing impact on many people's lives through his relentless service. In so many ways he was such an amazing example of taking the "me" and making it the "we". It seemed that he tended to put others ahead of himself most of the time and really focussed on other people and their needs and acted on what he saw. The result of that was clearly seen in the quantity of those who came to remember him and the things they said during the memorial. I was so honored to be a part of that. I/we have been very blessed to have someone that strong and caring in our lives...
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