Greg and Keith; Friends in 2015
This life is full of people that we come to meet; some of them we get to know at varying levels. Some people we briefly encounter in lines or on the road, others we rub shoulders with through work and play. Still others we are begotten from, grow up with, date, marry, and have the opportunity to do some begetting ourselves (to give birth to and raise as offspring).Friends and family are the ones that we count as the true parts of us that move us to smile, laugh, worry, and weep at their triumphs and travails. We grieve their passing and remember them nostalgically when they leave.
There are more public and famous people that we may never meet in person but affect us greatly nonetheless. We can cry when beloved well-known figures die or suffer, or more random strangers go through incredible trials and events that incite or inspire our empathy.
In this life we encounter friends, some that leave indelible impressions. Some last decades, some only days. But true friends leave an impact no matter how long the duration.
I would be remiss if I did not pay a written tribute Greg and Keith, who both moved on to the post-mortal realms this year. I will not include their last names in respect to their surviving family and loved ones.
Greg. A Sweet Soul
I met Greg in early 2011 after he met the local church missionaries of my faith; he was an enthusiastic learner, joining our congregation through attendance and baptism in quick fashion. Greg always maintained that the Gospel of Jesus Christ as our faith presents it and how he applied it made his life so much happier than he was before.
Greg was already in his late fifties and his body had seen better days. He suffered from chronic pains and aches which he would try to deal with through medicines and drugs of all kinds, some that he admitted he would abuse at times. He was looking for solace or comfort of any kind, both for his physical maladies and his mental or spiritual ills. Greg had had a long, hard life of psychological unrest.
Greg was already in his late fifties and his body had seen better days. He suffered from chronic pains and aches which he would try to deal with through medicines and drugs of all kinds, some that he admitted he would abuse at times. He was looking for solace or comfort of any kind, both for his physical maladies and his mental or spiritual ills. Greg had had a long, hard life of psychological unrest.
He had married very well, and he lived in a good enough home and environment, but it seemed demons of his past stalked his present.
His new-found faith helped a great deal, as he was wont to share with me and others, as he came to church, received more lessons and visits in his home, and prepared for becoming more committed in taking part of personal ordinances in the Washington DC Temple. He was able to do that pretty much at his anniversary of conversion in the winter of 2012. I got to be there when he went through, as many others of our church ward were there as well.
Greg grew up in Chicago, probably in the 1950s and 60s (as he was about 63 when he passed away earlier this year), and it was not easy. He told me that he did not have a lot of positive role models and that he learned to do things that were bad and damaging and he later regretted those things. He also played competitive football up to the semi-pro level and caused himself a bit of chronic injuries on his body and nerves.
He was spiritually hungry for a long time, looking for answers to his physical and spiritual pains and aches. In 2011 he met a couple sister missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ; he felt he had made it to his home. He made a lot of friends in our ward, and I counted myself as one of them.
Based on further complications of his difficult but well experienced life, Greg ended up living in an assisted-living facility where he made more friends. Tragically, while living there at the end of his first winter of stay, he passed away in his room unbeknownst to anyone at first. It took some time for those around him or the rest of his friends and family to find out he had run out of time.
I attended his funeral services at my church and I was able to speak about him and his friendship, how he inspired me as so willing to learn and commit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our consensus as those who reviewed his life and impact and the meaning of his life to us was that Greg was a spiritually powerful man whose smile and spirit would be with us forever, and that Greg was in the Lord's hands at rest.
I love this guy. Glad to have known him. Some of his friends and family had come, even recent friends at the facility where he last lived, and this was a missionary learning experience for them to be among us, and us with them. Some even said that they would read the Book of Mormon.
Greg was a pioneer convert of his faith, our faith, till the end. We said good-bye to him at the end of his mortal sojourn. And he is now working on the rest of his life, which is an eternal round that we have problems fathoming, but I trust it is full of joy and light.
Thanks Greg, for making my life a bit brighter with fondness and determination.
His new-found faith helped a great deal, as he was wont to share with me and others, as he came to church, received more lessons and visits in his home, and prepared for becoming more committed in taking part of personal ordinances in the Washington DC Temple. He was able to do that pretty much at his anniversary of conversion in the winter of 2012. I got to be there when he went through, as many others of our church ward were there as well.
Greg grew up in Chicago, probably in the 1950s and 60s (as he was about 63 when he passed away earlier this year), and it was not easy. He told me that he did not have a lot of positive role models and that he learned to do things that were bad and damaging and he later regretted those things. He also played competitive football up to the semi-pro level and caused himself a bit of chronic injuries on his body and nerves.
He was spiritually hungry for a long time, looking for answers to his physical and spiritual pains and aches. In 2011 he met a couple sister missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ; he felt he had made it to his home. He made a lot of friends in our ward, and I counted myself as one of them.
Based on further complications of his difficult but well experienced life, Greg ended up living in an assisted-living facility where he made more friends. Tragically, while living there at the end of his first winter of stay, he passed away in his room unbeknownst to anyone at first. It took some time for those around him or the rest of his friends and family to find out he had run out of time.
I attended his funeral services at my church and I was able to speak about him and his friendship, how he inspired me as so willing to learn and commit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our consensus as those who reviewed his life and impact and the meaning of his life to us was that Greg was a spiritually powerful man whose smile and spirit would be with us forever, and that Greg was in the Lord's hands at rest.
I love this guy. Glad to have known him. Some of his friends and family had come, even recent friends at the facility where he last lived, and this was a missionary learning experience for them to be among us, and us with them. Some even said that they would read the Book of Mormon.
Greg was a pioneer convert of his faith, our faith, till the end. We said good-bye to him at the end of his mortal sojourn. And he is now working on the rest of his life, which is an eternal round that we have problems fathoming, but I trust it is full of joy and light.
Thanks Greg, for making my life a bit brighter with fondness and determination.
Speaking of joy and light, Keith was a guy I got to know this year.
Keith. A Grand and great human.
He was funny and witty and made me laugh; we had some really good times joking, but along with his professional zeal and enthusiasm and know-how, he was intellectually and culturally curious, which inspired me to know more. He sent me emails about various subjects which I have kept.
He loved his family, his wife and two little girls (having red the obituary in 2023, he had another girl prior, who had passed). I realize that someday they may read this eulogy, and I wanted to share a little bit about their dad. Gone too fast. The Tuesday morning that I learned of his passing seemed like a bad dream.
He was not perfect, but he was a perfect co-worker. He brought joy and light to our office, and the intellectual curiosity and joie de vivre were omnipresent. All encompassing.
I discussed a few things with him in confidence a few times prior to his early morning attack that took his life; things at the office with a co-worker that had caused him some stress and triggered his smoking again. I had a few ideas as to what we could do to help him overcome a habit that had plagued him off and on, smoking tobacco which we discussed at an outside smoke break.
But we would not get to that chapter this fall: Keith had somewhere else to go, someone else to touch.
He definitely touched me. Made me laugh, made me think, made me stretch my understanding.
He was a great friend in the relatively short period of 8 months, out of his total 46 on the earth.
Thanks Keith. Thanks for being there for me, albeit way too brief.
We, speaking for myself particularly but for a host of others, will never forget you.
I wish to converse with you again in the heavens. Maybe a celestial northern Germany.
Good morning. Guten morgen.
Moi! Moi Moi! Ich liebe dich, mein camarade.
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