Goodbye Benjamin

My friend Brenda's dad walked on the other day… he turned 100 years old in June… Why is it even when someone lives a long and happy life… they seem to die too soon? He was a war veteran and a farmer who lived in the land where sheep and dairy cows grazed… I never had the privilege of knowing him…. but I know the woman whom he raised. He was a kind and loving person… who enjoyed sitting in a glider under his favorite tree. He loved his church, loved to laugh, loved music… loved his friend and family. He loved restoring tractors…he could, at times, be demure… Since I never had the chance to meet him… all these things I learned from her You see, every now and then Brenda would toss a stone into the lake that was her father's life… And as the ripples spread out concentrically..… Some of them I'm happy to say…found their way to me. Over the years to my delight as she tossed more stones and more and more ripples spread… a portrait of the man he was formed inside my head. I learned a lot about him through those ripples… a lot about Brenda too… and thanks to her I came to know and now will miss… a man I never knew. When I look back on all I learned about him… I am joyful but not amazed… After all…I had the perfect teacher… the woman whom he raised.