Saturday, April 7, 2018

Only God Knows Why

"I've been sittin' here trying to find myself.  I get behind myself I need to rewind myself.  Looking for the payback listening for the playback.  They say that every man bleeds just like me."  Kid Rock

OK this might get good if I'm quoting Kid Rock.  But ya'll that know me know how much I love The Kidd as I call him..

I started this one last week after I left the funeral home for a dear friend.  On the way home I'm thinking why Lord.  Yes, I know we're not to question these things but I'm not questioning God, I'm just wondering why things happen the way they do.  My friend was only 54 years old.  That's just too young.

Everybody knew his name, especially his Wild Wings friends, ya'll know, the ones that sat at table 71..  Well hell's bells, I didn't know that table 71 was where we sat every Friday night.  But tonight there was a special picture at table 71 of my friend and tonight we all went to say good bye and again on  Friday after the funeral service we went back to table 71 to honor him AGAIN.  Yep, he was the man of the hour again.  We were all there with our favorite stories, and because some couldn't make it on Friday we went back on Saturday to honor him once again.

You might ask why would ya'll do this so many times?  Well let me just tell you why.  Jeff was the kinda friend you loved from the time you met him.  He wasn't a celebrity but when we came through town on Friday, I bet people thought some big shot was in town.  The traffic was stopped in all directions, all the way through town.   I mean ALL directions.  I bet he was loving that, him stopping traffic but then again he could stop you in your tracks just by telling a story and trust me stories he had.

If the line in this song "you get what you put in and people get what they deserve" is true, then my friend would be reaping all the rewards this earthly world could offer.  People laughed at him all the time because of his craziness but I can promise right here as I'm writing this, he would give you the shirt off his back and I mean literally give it to you.  I watched him many a night buy drinks for people that had way more money than him, but that didn't matter to him.  That's just the way he was.  He might forget to pay his bar tab a couple of times or more like every week but he always paid it the next day.  

I know my friends life on earth was troubled and only he knew the pain but it didn't stop him from living life to the fullest.  He loved people and if you were his friend, you had a friend for life.  He worked with my daddy and he always said he would marry me one day.  Of course we laughed about it but one day I told him that if my daddy ever said I could marry him I would do it, no questions.  You see I could tell him this because I knew my daddy would never say that to him.  He loved my daddy and my son and he never failed to ask about Pops as he called my daddy.

Tears are rolling down my cheek as I write this to honor my friend.  A few tears are sad ones because I miss him but most are happy tears because I know without a doubt my friend is in heaven giving the angels a run for their money.  I know this because he told me many times he was ready when his time came and the preacher confirmed it on Friday.  The preacher said my friend told him many times, he was a Christian and knew where he would be when time comes.  There was no doubt but when the preacher confirms it, well I can't help but shed a few happy tears.

Lesson today?  I think my friend would want me to tell you not to wait to tell your friends you love them.  Don't wait until you're standing at the funeral service wishing you had done this or that.   If you're lucky enough to have friends like we do at table 71 don't be afraid to let them know what they mean to you.  There was a lot of hugging going on last weekend and by golly when the weekend was over I'm sure we made our friend proud because you see he never left us without hugging it out.  His last words to me two weeks before we lost him was "Luv ya hun."

So for my friend one last time...
Go rest high on that mountain son, your work on earth is done.  Go to heaven a-shoutin' love for the father and the son.

   

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful Sherry, This was a perfect way to honor your friend once again.

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