He lived

He was the third child born to Ruth Francis and the first son born to Thomas Edwin after their marriage. He had an older sister, my mother, and an older half brother. Later he became a big brother. He was a much loved, very gentle little boy who performed a very accurate appendectomy on his teddy bear after emergency surgery at age five.

He married my aunt 62 years ago. They went to Germany while he was in the army and then the University of Illinois while he got his degree in accounting. They had four children, my cousins, who are wonderful, talented, good, people. It doesn't get much better than that.

He was a walking, talking, living man of grace and love whose contributions to his family, neighborhood and the world were consistently extraordinarily far reaching, and constant.

He died yesterday having lived a good life and you just can't do better than that.