It was at the start of Spring - when life is getting ready to burst forth from the soil of the earth - that your final battle began.

We had no clue you were fighting a life and death war. You fought valiantly against the insidious virus that attacked you, but it was stronger than anything this world had to combat it. Your spirit fled into the waiting arms of God.

You had so many dreams, we had so many plans - all gone in the breathless moment between one heartbeat and the next.

~ ~ ~

THE Begonia still blooms

~ ~ ~

Courtesy Kilty Kreations

~ ~ ~

I saw you, you know. That brilliant late Spring morning driving through town. I saw that red Gold Wing coming toward me and watched as it drew near. My heart was racing and I watched you raise your hand in salute to me as you passed by.

You sat so tall and even behind the darkened visor you always wore, I could see your smile! My heart sang with joy at seeing you so healthy and full of life! I turned to watch you go on up the road but the road behind me was empty for as far as I could see. I'll cherish that moment for all my days.

I love you Jeff

~ Memories ~

Walking down the halls of memories, so many little things about Jeff stand out in my heart.

The excitement that fair made his eyes shine when he was blessed with a new toy - in Jeff's case, the new toy would have been his new Honda Goldwing, or the 12-gauge shotgun he'd been wanting forever.

Jeff had a love of the outdoors that truly amazed me. He'd grown up in Dayton, Ohio and was a "city boy", yet here he was happy as a clam with his chain saw and chipper-shredder, safety glasses and steel-toed engineer boots!

Right after we'd moved here, he got his first chain saw and promptly went buzzing through the woods. He probably would have leveled the entire Realm Woods if I'd let him!

He decided one day that the huge Dogwood tree in the front yard needed pruning and did his pruning with the chain saw... while I was at work. I nearly choked when I pulled in the drive and saw how much of the tree he had taken. It was a nubbin of a tree! Well, there's really nothing gained by going ballistic - it's done. At least verbal ballistics are pointless, but that not-so-subtle I'm mad as a hornet look got it's point across. We didn't discuss the Dogwood at all, but come the following spring, Jeff's chest was puffed out, his grin was enormous, and the look in his eyes, whew! pure victory!

The Dogwood was stunning! It was the best it had been in the three years we'd been here! Jeff was sooo full of himself, it was almost unbearable! :D

He truly loved the spring. He worked feverishly with the chipper-shredder making mulch for the tiers. It takes a boat-load of leaves to make any sizeable quantity of mulch! We used to laugh about him raking leaves in the woods!

I was watching him from the kitchen window one day when there was this horrible racket and Jeff jerked suddenly then lurched backward and fell to the ground on his face. Terrified I ran around to the back yard and dropped down beside him as the machine slowed and stopped.

Jeff! What happened?! He turned over and looked up at me with eyes as big as saucers and told me that the machine had started to make a funny sound so he reached to flip the kill switch, something inside broke free and he dropped to the ground 'cause he thought the whole thing was gonna break apart.

Well, a blade did break off and what a dent it put in the side of the shredder! That was 1/4" thick steel, too! The blade may have broken but the machine held itself together and kept the violence contained so Jeff came through it unscathed. Yay!

He was on the phone that very day, calling Toro for replacement parts and by the next weekend, he was chipping and shredding contentedly!

Fall 1989