Dear family and friends, I want to offer my love and heartfelt condolences for the loss of a husband, father, grandfather and friend. I feel the loss too. Uncle Dick was very special to me. When my parents were going through a divorce, I stayed with friends to finish the school year while my mother took a live-in nursing job to support us. Uncle Dick wrote to me every week without fail during that year to give me the support that he felt a young girl needed. I've always considered him a second father. As I look back over the years, I have many memories of fun times with my Uncle and cousins as I was included in many of their outings and adventures. I remember trips to Long Lake when I got so sunburned that I had blisters as big as my thumb. Uncle Dick said "Irene is going to kill me". Camping at Long Lake became quite an adventure when LuAnn threw Frances' pajamas down the outhouse hole and Uncle Dick had to retrieve them. He was so mad he could spit. I remember LuAnn, Frances and Jim setting me up to ride their pony. They knew that he would buck me off, but they told me that I would have a great time. Sure! I don't know how Uncle Dick was able to get me off the back of that horse because the pony was spinning in circles and bucking at the same time. I was hanging on for dear life, but Uncle Dick rescued me as usual. I remember another rescue when I was visiting in Montana. Jimmy wanted to swing out over the river on a rope swing, but couldn't get back to the bank. He was holding onto the rope for dear life and the current was dragging at him making it difficult to cling to the rope. I was the only one who could swim, so I swam out to swim him back to shore. Jimmy held onto my swimsuit straps but about half way to the bank, he crawled up my back which put my head under water. I kept swimming and the girls waded out as far as they could, but couldn't reach us. Fortunately, Uncle Dick was on the way home from a sales trip and just happened to look over the bridge and saw what was happening. He screamed, "Jimmy let her go!" Jim let loose and all I saw was the top of his head floating down river. I swam to catch him and the girls ran down stream. I was able to shove him over to them and they drug him the rest of the way to the bank. That was close!! As an adult, Uncle Dick and I shared many things in common and would call each other just to visit. We both liked raising chickens, gardening and were passionate about following our favorite baseball teams. He gave me tips on practical things like using shredded paper for nesting material for my hens, using a drip system for my garden, putting bran in my oatmeal for regularity. I could talk to him about anything. He was quite a guy and I'll miss him. Love, Laurene