The day after Dad passed, Adam sent me the following e-mail:
Dave,
I just wanted to let you know how deeply sorry I am for your loss. Your dad's been on my mind a lot lately, and I wish I would have sent this sooner so you could have told him how much I love and appreciate him. There have been a couple of instances that have been playing through my mind that I wanted to share with you.
First off, I'm not sure if you are aware that back when you and Jared were on your missions, my dad had a pretty bad accident in which the patellar tendons on both knee caps snapped. He was walking down a flight of concrete stairs carrying a load of pots and pans, missed a step and fell. The result was that after surgery he was stuck in a wheel chair for about 3 months. After the surgery, when we took him home, as we pulled up to the house, there was Roland building a ramp up onto our patio and up the step through our front door. No one had asked him to do it, I'm not even sure it had even occurred to us yet of how inconvenient it was going to be to pull him up those steps. He saw an opportunity to serve and he acted on it. Throw that in with a number of home repairs, trips to the dump, and the list goes on. He was always there to help.
Going back to my days as a deacon, when he was our quorum advisor, there was a time he gave me a pretty good example of D&C 121:43. A few of us had been picking on some of the younger boys a little too much at mutual. The following Sunday was "Fast Sunday" and we met at your house to go collect fast offerings. I ended up with the route that goes all the way up to Island View Drive, and your dad offered to give us a ride to the top of the hill. In the car (the old white suburban, if I remember right) it was pretty noticeable that something was on his mind, and when we got out he let us have it. He made it abundantly clear that he wasn't going to tolerate that behavior in our quorum. Point taken. The great thing was, that later that day at church, seeing that we learned our lesson, he fulfilled the second part of that verse in D&C by "showing forth afterwards an increase of love..." Obviously, it took a few years and a little greater perspective to fully appreciate that experience. But it taught me some very important lessons that have stuck with me a long time.
I just wanted to let you know how much your dad has influenced me over the years, both as a neighbor, friend, home teacher, leader, and the list goes on. He, along with my own dad, has given me a bench mark on how to honor my Priesthood, and live how our Savior would like us to live. We're lucky to have such great dads. And so blessed that we've had this time to learn from them. I know that my dad has cherished the friendship that they've shared, and we've all viewed your dad as so much more than a neighbor. I was talking on the phone with my mom earlier today and she said, "Roland isn't perfect. He's a good man, with faults. But the thing that I've loved the most about him is that he's always been such a great friend to your dad." He will be deeply missed. I know that the Savior has made it possible for our family relationships to continue and that he has the power to console us in our greatest trials. Please send my condolences to you mom and the rest of your family. You will all be in our prayers.
Adam
