My Dad's good friend Daryl Price sent me this email today. I asked him if I could post it and he said yes:
Hi David,
I am sorry that we will not be able to attend Roland’s funeral this weekend. We are going on a family vacation and are unable to change it. I just want you and your family to know that we love your Dad and will miss him greatly.
Where to start, I know the passing of your Dad was a real blow to your family even though you knew it was coming. I am so sorry for your pain. My heart goes out to Suzie, Roland loved her so much. He always wanted to please her.
As you know, Roland was a great man. He has influenced so many peoples lives for good, especially mine. I remember many times as we were driving to work, we would stop by the post office and he would drop a letter in the mail with one of his infamous smiley faces on it. He would smile and tell me he was hoping to brighten someone’s day. He was always thinking of ways to help someone or to make them smile.
I hope you don’t mind my reminiscing for a minute. I remember being called as Roland’s assistant with the 11 year olds. We had such a great time! We would work together all week, and then get to teach the 11 year olds on Sunday. Usually, employees/employers don’t want to spend any more time together than necessary, but we were lucky.
I loved being around Roland, he made work fun. For example, one time we were putting a water line in, he was in the backhoe and I was standing at the edge of the ditch, and he reached out and bumped me with the bucket just to see if he could make me jump. Then he would pretend that nothing happened, then we would start laughing. Or he would call me over to do something that was up high then say never mind, I’ll get it, you’re not tall enough, then continue to do it himself, all the time just laughing to himself. We would have competitions driving nails, or anything to have fun. We were always laughing about something.
I remember the day the first space shuttle blew up. We were sheeting Kevin Barkdall’s roof, and we sang primary songs all day. How many people get to do that at work?
He was always a good example. He was honest in everything he did. In fact he always gave a little more than he was contracted to do. I hope his clients appreciated that. I think they did. I remember the day your parents brought Jonathan, and then Maggie, home. They were so excited. Your parents are so giving, so full of love.
I remember when I first knew about Roland’s illness. I was in town form Arkansas, and Roland was just starting to limp. We talked quite a bit and he asked me for a blessing. What a great honor that was to me. In all our time spent together we never had the need or the opportunity for something like that. David, I wanted so bad to bless him that he would be ok, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t what the Lord had in mind for him. We both knew at that time what was going to happen. I just cried. (I’m sure he already knew, he was just hoping for something different). I haven’t told anyone this except my wife, but I felt that you should know. Now I look at all the blessings that have come to your family and all the blessings that have come to the people your Dad helped, I can see a glimpse of why this happened. It gave many people a chance to give back to your Dad and to your family. I’m sure that there are many other reasons unknown to us.
Due to his circumstances, I wasn’t able to see him as often as I would have liked, so we talked on the phone a lot. We always made each other laugh. He always had a new joke for me. It seemed that every time we talked we would just giggle the entire time. We both benefitted from that.
David, thanks for letting me share a few of my experiences with you. I love Roland very much. We will all miss him. What a joyous reunion it will be when we get to see him again.
Did you know that Roland and I are 20 years and 1 day apart in age? We joked that we were friends before we got here. But that he had to come first so that he could tell me what not to do and keep me out of trouble, and that’s what he did.
Thanks
Your friend,
Daryl
