Eric slowly got up from beside Eunice and walked to the podium that Rev. Pillow had just vacated. He looked around the room, to see that it was packed. All he knew was that he had to say something; maybe when he got rolling the words would flow.

“Thank you, Reverend Pillow,” he started. “And thank you to all of you who are here today. We are here not to mourn the death of Jeff Harrington, but to celebrate his long and full life. There is a difference, and we all know it.

“I first met Jeff back when we were freshmen in college, a long, long time ago. I was part of the first double date when he met and started going with Eunice, and I was best man at their wedding. I’ve had many good friends over the years, but Jeff was always far and away my best friend.

“When I first read the obituary that Reverend Pillow just read to you, I was disappointed, to say the least. While it covers some of the physical facts of his life, it says nothing about the warm, friendly man that Jeff always was. It says nothing about his being a successful businessman or a loving husband to his wife and a devoted father to his children. It says nothing about his sometimes skewed sense of humor, or the kindnesses he did for other people. When you get right down to it, the only thing the obituary says is that he lived, and that he died. There was more to him than that – much more.

“In our lives, Jeff and I did many favors for each other, to the point where we long ago gave up trying to keep track of who owed who and how much. Jeff certainly gave me a great deal of himself, and I tried to return the favor.

“When I first met Jeff, he was rather shy and reticent around strangers. I can’t blame him for that; we were all new on a strange college campus, doing new things in our lives. At the time he knew no one on the campus, nor did I. Since we had been forced together, we had to learn to support each other, and in that time we became friends. I don’t think it’s wrong to say that Jeff was still pretty shy on that first date with Eunice, but they soon discovered they were soul mates, and that never changed once in fifty-five years. I also don’t think it’s wrong to say that Eunice brought Jeff out of the shadows of his life, and did more to turn him into the confident, self-sustaining man that he became.

“One of the very odd things about our long friendship is that Jeff and I really weren’t much alike. Those of you who know me know that I’ve tended to live a life of risk and adventure, while Jeff’s pleasures involved staying around home, taking care of his wife and family, doing the big things and little things that truly build a family. Oh, he had his pleasures – there can be no doubt about it. He enjoyed getting out on Blue Lake and going fishing, for example. He never caught very much, mostly because he didn’t want to or even care at all if he did. In fact, his wife often accused him of going out fishing with no hook on the line, just a sinker to make it look like he was serious. That may be the truth, although I never caught him at it. But he enjoyed the chance to get out on the lake by himself, just for the quiet so he could think, to contemplate, and perhaps sometimes to pray. Even after the stroke that took so much of his life away from him, he still enjoyed getting out on the lake to fish. I took him out to his fishing shanty two weeks ago, just to touch a little of that joy. We drowned a few worms without catching anything, and in a way that says something about Jeff – it wasn’t so much the accomplishing of things that was important to him, but the fact that he was doing them. Doing them as well as he could was important to him as was doing them in a way that brought him joy, pleasure, an appreciation of nature or just the satisfaction of a job well done.

“Over half a century ago, when I was going off to the Army, I sold Jeff a Triumph roadster, a sports car that I had no use for while in the service. Jeff and Eunice took that car on their honeymoon, and they drove it on vacations until their kids started coming along. But still, even then, they’d take it out on a nice, warm afternoon for a drive, just something special to enjoy together. In more recent years he had it restored to showroom condition, and it’s been the recipient of several awards. In case you are wondering why the funeral procession will be led by a 1955 Triumph TR-2, it’s because I felt that something that gave him and Eunice so much joy in his life should accompany him to his grave.”

Eric was amused to see Ann frown at that statement; obviously it affronted her sense of propriety. Too bad, Ann, he thought. We’re here to celebrate his life and the things he loved, not his death and the somber occasion of it all. And then he went on.”

“Another of the things Jeff really enjoyed in his life was his home. I don’t know for sure, but I’ve always had the impression that the purchase of it was something of a reach for a young couple at the time, but it provided a comfortable home for them for over fifty years. It was a home where they welcomed their friends and raised their children. It almost always was a happy home, a place of love and laughter.

“I don’t think anyone will disagree with me when I say that Jeff was a great father to his kids. He always supported them, helped them with their homework, went to their ball games, and did all the other things a father should do. And, when they stepped out of line and correction was needed, he corrected them, and as far as I know never resorted to violence to do it. A few gentle words from him could do more to get his point across than a month’s worth of yelling and screaming.

“One of Jeff’s great enjoyments in his life was his work. When I first met him, he already understood that he was expected to go to work for his father in the family business, Harrington Oil. I think at times he felt as if he might like to cast a wider net in his life, but he was satisfied with the job. Shortly after getting out of college he was running the Amherst office, and then, upon the sudden death of his father, he took over the entire business in Wychbold. In doing that, he brought growth and change that were needed to keep it a viable business that still heats many of the homes in the area today. I know there were many times when a family came upon hard times in the winter, he’d keep their house warm for them, and tell the people to pay him when they could. Of course, there were people who abused that trust, and when they did they lost his trust for good. But he was willing to extend his hand in friendship, so long as that hand didn’t get bitten.

“Above all, Jeff’s great joy in his life was always his wife, Eunice. I’ve often looked back at that memorable double date and been amazed at how well things worked out for him. From almost that first date onward they were a couple, loving each other, supporting each other, helping each other. They never spoke an angry word to each other in my presence, even when Jeff was hurting and frustrated by his stroke.

“So Jeff was more than just a few dry lines in an obituary. He was a warm and loving individual who enjoyed his life and made the most of it, at least partly because he enjoyed other people and the pleasure of knowing them. I can recall many evenings of sitting around their house as I told them tales of where I had been and what I had done, and while he enjoyed hearing them, I don’t think he ever envied me for doing them. He was satisfied with the life he had built for himself; the grass was green enough on his side of the fence, thank you.”

Eric paused for a moment; his well was getting dry, at least without getting into telling specific stories, and he could have kept that up all night if he’d had to. He was starting to think that he’d talked for long enough, anyway.

“I really don’t have the words I’d like to say,” he continued after a moment. “As far as I’m concerned, Jeff was far and away the best friend I ever had, that I could hope to have. Different though we were, we could share and appreciate each other, and that is no small thing in this life. I like to think that I was his best friend as well, but I can’t speak for him. I know that I will cherish the memory of knowing him for the rest of my life, and miss him all of that time. Rest in peace, Jeff. You will not be forgotten as long as those who loved you still live. You were a friend and an inspiration to us all.”

Eric wasn’t expecting any applause, and he didn’t get it – things were too solemn for that. Eunice and Donna had broad smiles on their faces, Ann was at best impassive, and Ashley looked no less steamed than she had when he’d started following up on Reverend Pillow’s brief service.

The rest of the formalities were also brief. Again there was a receiving line near the door as the crowd filed out. Eric received several good comments on his eulogy, saying that he’d caught a lot right about Jeff, even though Eric himself felt he could and probably should have done a better job. Finally, everyone had gotten outside; Stiverson and a couple helpers rolled the casket out to the door.

The pallbearers were strictly honorary, so no lifting was involved. Eric was one of them, of course, and so were Mark, Bob, and Brian, along with Alec Hammond and one of the Harrington Gas and Oil drivers. Somewhere about that time Ann made a plea to her mother to not ride to the cemetery in the Triumph, but again Eunice brushed her off without comment. Once again, Eric couldn’t help but wonder if that had something to do with Ann’s proposal that Eunice move down to Evansville, but again, this was neither the time nor the place to ask. Eunice did rather pointedly take Eric’s arm as he walked her over to the passenger side of the little sports car, and assisted her in getting in.

He walked around to the driver’s side, got in, and started the engine. “I thought that went fairly well,” he commented to Eunice.

“Your eulogy was the best part of the service,” she replied. “It was warm and it was from the heart. I can think of other things you could have said, but I think you covered the ground well enough.”

“Funerals are never a happy time,” he shrugged. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad that reads, ‘We put the fun in funerals.’”

“Heaven forbid, but most of the ones I’ve been too are much too somber,” she replied. “This has been a trying time, and I will be happy to have it over with. Ann, bless her heart, has good intentions but has made things worse, not better. But let’s not get into that right now. Eric, do you remember the first time you took me for a ride in this car?”

“Sure, it was that time I warned you about a few things about Jeff. I’m glad you didn’t listen to me.”

“Oh, I listened to you, and like we were talking the other day, you were right, but you got the implications wrong. I wish it were a little warmer so we could have the top down on this, like Jeff and I drove it for so many miles over the years, but it’s just a little too bitter out there right now.”

“Just as well, I guess,” he shrugged. “The heater in this thing was never much to write home about and I doubt it’s improved with age. I used to be able to handle things a lot colder than this, but I’m not dressed for it either.”

It was not a long ride across town to the Oak Shade Cemetery and the Harrington family plot, where both Jeff’s mother and father were buried, and where there was a space set aside for Eunice. The burial vault company had erected a shade over the grave, although it did nothing to shield the attendees from the bitter wind that swept over the largely open field. Fortunately, Reverend Pillow kept this part of the service brief, and people soon turned to go.

Now was the last chance for Eric to say something he’d been wanting to say ever since Eunice had found Jeff’s body. Standing there next to the casket over the open grave, he mumbled a few words, too softly for anyone else to hear. “Good-bye, Jeff old buddy. If there’s another side I hope to see you there. Maybe we can talk over old times again, and maybe even go fishing. I’m going to miss you, buddy. Rest in peace.”

With that, he took Eunice by the arm, and together they walked back to the Triumph.

That wasn’t the end of things, of course. Jeff and Eunice had been members, if somewhat peripheral, of the Wychbold First Methodist Church for most of the time they’d been married, and the ladies of the United Methodist Women had put together a funeral buffet dinner, as they usually did for members of the church. They had done it for many years, and had it down to a science; the food was good, and there was plenty of it. Although everyone at the funeral home had been invited, only around half actually showed up for the dinner, which wasn’t very formal and a lot more social than the funeral home. People stood around in small knots talking about various things. Some talked about Jeff, and some talked about Eric’s remarks – but there was also talking about other things like the Wychbold High School basketball team, which was having a good year, or ice fishing, or how the deer herd was doing this winter.

Eric didn’t stay at Eunice’s side for this one – she had her own circle of friends to chat with, of course – but he did get to see some other people he only saw rarely. Alec Hammond, the current owner of Harrington Gas and Oil, had a couple stories about Jeff that Eric had never heard, and they were good ones. He heard a couple others from people he couldn’t place at the moment, including more than one story about how Jeff’s kindness had helped people stay warm in a winter when jobs were scarce. Several people commented that Eric had done a nice job on the eulogy, and Eric told them he wished he could have done better.

Eric did get a chance to talk to Gary Dovecote for a moment. “I haven’t actually run the idea past Eunice yet,” he told his friend. “I thought I’d better wait until this funeral stuff dies down and the kids are on their way back home. But, based on a couple things she’s said, she probably will go along with it. If she wants me to stay here, then I stay, and that’s that.”

“Hey, I’d expect you to say that,” Gary commented.

“The thing is, I may, and I say may, have another kid for us to take along, maybe even two. I haven’t actually run it by the kid’s parents yet, but I probably will tonight or tomorrow. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’d go for it.”

“Anybody I know?”

“You remember when we took Jeff and Eunice’s two younger kids down the Abitibi that time? Elaine’s daughter Shanna is the most likely one.”

“Elaine would have a good idea of what we’re talking about, then,” Gary observed.

“I don’t know a thing more about it, and I’m guessing I won’t know until the first of the week. Maybe I’ll try to give you a call then. If it even remotely looks like a go, maybe we can get to working on some of the details, even though it’d probably be mid-summer before it comes off.”

“Something like that. Hey, I’d just as soon go after the peak of the black flies, anyway. Let me know when you find out more.”

That was about as under control as things were likely to get for now, Eric thought, resolving to try to get around the room some more and to talk with some more of Jeff’s friends and associates. He moved on and traded a couple of Jeff stories with a couple younger delivery drivers before Ashley cornered him, fire in her eye.

“How could you say those things about Grandpa?” she fumed. “That wasn’t the kind of thing that should have been said at a funeral at all! And after the minister did such a poor job with the sermon.”

“You mean, you’re disappointed that Reverend Pillow didn’t deliver a real hellfire and brimstone salvation message?” Eric bristled right back. “And that I didn’t follow up with one? Ashley, I hate to break your heart, but something like that would have been a huge disservice to your grandfather’s memory. He was not like that at all, and he didn’t like people who wanted to shove that kind of message down people’s throats. Your grandfather was a kind and gentle man, not a fundamentalist nut. He wouldn’t have had the friends he had if he’d been one. Religion was not terribly important in his life.”

“It should have been,” she whined. “There’s nothing more important than a close personal relationship with God.”

Eric shook his head. There was no way he was going to get through her thick skull, so there was no point in trying. But he couldn’t resist a comeback, either. “It strikes me that Jesus was a humble and gentle being,” he replied. “Doesn’t the Bible refer to Jesus as a shepherd, leading his lambs gently into the fold? I don’t really know a whole lot about herding sheep, but I know you don’t use a whip with them. Take my word for it, that was the Jesus that your grandfather understood, not someone shouting at the top of his lungs. If you think differently, then you have the wrong view of your grandfather.”

“If you think that of the Lord, then you’re wrong.”

“Ashley, doesn’t it say in the Bible, ‘Place my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for your souls?’”

“I’ve never heard that. You’re making it up.”

“I am not,” he said. “Matthew 11:29. Go look it up.”

“How would you know that? I’ve never heard you say anything about your relationship with Jesus.”

“Mostly because I’m like your grandfather was, in that I don’t believe in cramming my religion down someone else’s throat. There’s entirely too much of it in this world, and I doubt Jesus would like it very much. Like I said, go look it up. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But if I’m right, maybe it’s something you ought to think about.”

Since the dinner was being held in the Methodist Fellowship Hall, the chances of a Bible being close at hand were pretty good, and Ashley departed in search of one. “That might hold her for a moment,” Ashley’s father, Bob, said. “But it won’t hold her down for long. She’s really become a pain in the neck with that stuff.”

“So I noticed,” Eric shook his head. “Kids! You try to teach them right from wrong, and no matter how good you are at it, some of them get their own ideas in their heads.”

“No fooling,” Bob grinned. “But I didn’t think you were much of a Bible reader.”

“I’m not,” Eric laughed. “But try being stuck in an six-foot by six-foot tent in a blizzard that lasts for a week with nothing but a Gideon New Testament to read and see if you don’t read some of it, and even remember a little of it.”

“That much makes sense,” he smiled. “Look, I know we talked about it yesterday, but Ann is still pushing at Eunice for her to come live with us.”

“I’m aware of it,” Eric replied. “I haven’t talked with Eunice about it directly, but I do know that Ann has been campaigning around the rest of the family, trying to build a little support.”

“Elaine and Mark are being polite, but I don’t think she’s sold them. She’s trying to keep the whole thing a little quiet, to keep it from you. I don’t think that’s right.”

“I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”

“Just between us I don’t think all that much of the idea,” Bob admitted. “But Ann has this bug up her ass and won’t listen to me.”

“Her timing really sucks. I mean, Eunice has enough stress on her right now that she doesn’t need that aggravation, too.”

“True, but it may be part of what Ann is thinking.”

“You could be right, but it’s going to have to be Eunice’s decision, not Ann’s. Unfortunately, since I don’t officially know about it there’s not much I can say right now, but I will say something when the time is right.”

“It might not shut Ann up, but we can hope.”

“Right now, I’ll settle for getting into a good conversation with someone so I won’t have to reveal to Ashley how little I really know about the Bible,” Eric laughed. “She acts ready for a fight, and I don’t really want to give her one.”

“That might be a wise idea,” Bob agreed. “I’ll try to cut her off and divert her onto someone else.”

“You might try Reverend Pillow,” Eric suggested. “He probably can’t change her mind either, but at least he ought to be better equipped to battle scripture with scripture.”

“Good idea. Go find someone else to talk to.”

Eric did; in this case it was Bradley, Mark and Lori’s son. They talked a little more about Brad’s college career, and what he planned to do once he graduated, and about his fiancée. In a way, it seemed to Eric that Bradley was taking after his grandfather – he looked to be a worker bee, a family man, like Jeff had been. That was probably all right, he thought. It takes those kinds of people to make the world go around. At least the odds seemed to be that he would have something to show for it.

For some reason Ashley never caught up with Eric again, which was fine with him. There were plenty of other people to talk to at the dinner, some of whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, and some he might never see again.

If Jeff’s death had taught Eric anything, it was that every day was precious, and there might not be another time to be friendly with a friend. It was best to make use of every chance he had.

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