Thanks JP.

Originally posted by jpholding

Some narrative on the memorial....

Regrettably, Tampa rush hour traffic, and dark streets on Ehrlich Rd that made it hard to read address numbers, conspired to make the Holdings a little late. We walked in at the point of "Fond Remembrances."

This was something new for me -- people were invited to get up and share memories of their friendships with Curt. I decided to go ahead and raise my hand to come up. I talked about personal memories of visiting with Curt (the same things I mentioned on the other thread) and how well-regarded he was here at TWeb, and that everyone here would miss him. I mentioned how he composed his sig lines, his avatar selection (the Groucho Marx duck -- that drew some laughs), and how he piled in on the atheists with us in the Tekton section here.

Several folks who went up made gentle jokes about his height. I mentioned how when he decorated our Christmas tree with us, we saved the top for him. The pastor told a story of how someone was trying to fix a light in one of the meeting rooms, and had had to stand on a chair, but still couldn't fix it. Curt came over and told the man he'd take care of it, and he did -- just reached up and took care of it with no chair or anything.

It was also mentioned that Curt's mother left lights in her house unfixed until Curt could come by and fix them, since he could reach them easily.

There was a very touching testimony from a fellow who had done lawn and garden work for Curt. Apparently at a time when he was down on his luck, Curt took him into his home as a guest and let him stay with him until he got back on his feet. He closed his testimony with a simple, heartfelt phrase, in a broken voice, that encapsulated all of it perfectly: "I'll miss him."

There were also stories told of how people reacted when Curt showed up in a kilt. The one that sticks out told of how one lady bluntly asked him "What are wearing under that?" To which Curt replied with a straight face, "Nothin'."

The "Comfort from God's Word" part of the service was an exposition of Ps. 23 that the pastor said Curt was very fond of. He went through the Psalm and explained it, and also how Curt embodied its teachings. The pastor noted that his last prayer with Curt the Sunday before had been when Curt asked him to pray for an atheist he was witnessing to online, perhaps here somewhere, but he wasn't sure.

I may remember more later -- usually my memories of events like these are generally fragmentary and elusive. I'll close for now by noting some of the arrangements. The memorial was held in the church's sanctuary, which was one of those types with no pews, but rather loose chairs that could be arranged as needed. At the front was a table with some flowers (not sure if they were the ones from TWeb? the card was obscured), a picture of Curt in younger days (his hair and beard were still black), what I assume was his Bible, and two of his Irish berets. Mrs H and I went up to greet Dawn afterwards as well.

I may remember more later.

My pleasure. I'll likely be remembering more bits and pieces as the day wears on. (Just posted a bit more a few minutes ago.)