This afternoon Dean and I attended a community gathering in Celebration of the life of the young man I wrote about having committed suicide. The most wonderful thing about the whole afternoon was that the speakers did not back away from the fact that Kevin had a disease that finally overcame him. He was someone with amazing vision for all sorts of possibilities and in the end, he couldn't see any. And that part of his story was told.
And ~ so were all the wonderful stories of his humor, his gentleness, his delight in life and his family and his children. We laughed and cried and came a little closer to understanding. We sat outside under pine trees blown by the wind in the warm sunshine. We were there in generational numbers from tiny babies to grandmothers older than I am. We were the Tahoe community, dressed in our ski pants and cycling shorts, sneakers and hiking boots, vests and sweaters and sweat pants. All there because in some way Kevin had touched our lives.
Dean had worked closely with him in the planning of several events at the Nordic Center that have taken off and become tradition. He taught (or at least tried to teach) me how to skate ski. He was So patient. He knew our dogs sometimes meeting them before he saw them with us.
The afternoon was perfect. And because we are leaving early in the morning for a week away, we came home when the speeches were over. Many, many people were staying for food and drink and sharing stories of our very special friend. May he rest in Peace knowing he is loved.
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