Uncle Jim always had a smile and would always ask me how teaching was going. And he listened to me talk about students, classes, and salary issues with an open ear. He always wanted to know how milking was going on the farm and told Mark if he needed help he used to sling milk in canisters from the barn to the tank.
That is just who Jim was - a friendly smile, an ear to listen, a sportsman, and a go-getter. His obituary said he coached nearly every sport and I often heard about him helping many people in town and looking for the next thing to do. As I saw the posts roll out on Facebook and the comments continue to grow I could tell that everyone else knew this too.
I posted in a few comments a quote from a poem by sportswriter Grantland Rice that was hanging in the gym when I worked at WDMS that I think says exactly what Jim was -
"For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes–not that you won or lost–but how you played the Game."
As a teacher of technology one of the first things I make sure students know is that what you put online is always online. But we also live in a day in age when more information is created online in a day than we used to receive in years, which makes information quick to get lost in the shuffle and harder to find. I saw these posts as a catch 22 - they will be great for my aunt and cousins to looks back when they need an extra reminder of how great Jim was, but just as life continues so does social media and the posts will be pushed to a memory. And I saw on a bench at the funeral home "When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure." So I felt the need to put all these special posts together in this blog as an easy to find way to remember. And the librarian in me is hoping to take all the screen shots and put them together in a book to share as well.
I know the memories will live on in your hearts and continue to grow in the traditions built by the family Jim and Sally raised up. And hopefully this post will help you remember what your hearts already knew, Jim was an amazing man who passed kindness on to ALL those lucky enough to know him.
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| Click here to see screen shots of posts from Facebook |
