Last year we came to help our brother with some yard work.  He’d had a surgery some months earlier and was still suffering with nerve pain.  He had been so discouraged with a slow recovery, and so we hoped to offer some moral support by helping him get his raised vegetable beds ready and planted.

Today, we are here again, only this time for his funeral.  The battle just got thicker and harder and we are heartbroken that cancer has ended the full life of a great man.

At one point in the summer, he said he felt he had walked through Gethsemane to a degree.  Pain and mind altering drugs for pain had left him at an all time low.  We had no idea at the time, but cancer was also ravaging his body, growing in his brain and in his spine.

What can I say except I am grateful for all of time and experiences we had together through the years. And how is it that we are so blind to those we love when we are all here and going through the common trials of life?

I believe that he won his battle.  And I pray I will do half as well in my challenges as time goes on.

And I hope to be wiser when we meet again.

Goodbye for now, be at peace.