On Thursday afternoon my best friend Neil’s father Ed passed away. I had known this man for a very long time as his son and I have been friends since second grade (there was that time early on when we didn’t like each other too much as kids but we got past it). Our families have been friends for a long time as well. Each family has a house on the Cape, ours is in Falmouth and theirs is in Bourne.
Each summer Ed and the whole family would come over for the Falmouth Road Race. The Falmouth Road Race was always such a big event with Ed and the family. There was even a “running club” named in his honor with a newsletter and other events. I think back on that now and realize how much fun it was to be around Ed and his family. Ed was as old school as they came, no nonsense, very set in his ways and stood by his convictions. As a kid who wasn’t quite like that you might get intimidated by the man however he was always fair with me even when he was ribbing me about some of my choices in style (again, back in college days). Ed was always good with a joke and some dry humor.
When Allison and I got married we gave everyone a CD with a slide show on it and inside it had information about my blog including the address. Now to be honest, one of the last people I would have expected to have read this blog would have been Ed. It blew my mind to find out that not only did he read it, he read it regularly and he enjoyed it.
Ed was so much an institution to this town and very influential in many of the town events. He ran his own insurance agency, he was my agent, and was president of our downtown association at one time. He ran the Santa Claus parade in town for many years and he was also president of our town credit union. I never knew that last one.
What I did know was that Ed was a good man who loved a good joke, enjoyed the heck out of being a grandfather and was father to three great sons and husband to a wonderful woman. He touched the lives of so many people in our town that half the town will probably shut down for his funeral tomorrow. That is a testament to a man who gave of his time and talents and who served his community. The line stretching out of the funeral home before the wake even begun this afternoon and the sign in the middle of town also serve as testament to a life that touched many others. We Will All Miss You, Ed.
Mobile post sent by BenSpark using Utterz. Replies. mp3