Tangential Post on Leaving Us.

[rps]

Nowhere else to put this, other than stories, and this is too short for that.

I just got home from a Celebration of Life for a dear rugby friend, Jim Redding. Former teammates, kids he coached, even players from teams against which he played came, many of them from out of town or country. Almost everyone wore rugby jerseys or Hawaiian shirts similar to the ones he favored.

The function started at 4:00 at the Blue Turtle Tavern, and every civilian who entered turned around and left. Maybe they were afraid of a bar full of ruggers.

We passed around his ashes and took pictures of us rugby hugging them.

Jim left instructions to put his ashes in a Wild Turkey bottle and throw the bottle in a ditch in Creek County. The Wild Turkey bottle was full, so it needed emptying. Sometime tomorrow, when the party survivors crawl out of bed, Jim will find his ditch.

The club's foundation had purchased and tapped two kegs. Mexican food was laid out for buffet.

At 5:30 I realized that if I did not leave then, I would need to call Nancy to pick me up at 2:00 AM.

darn, I am getting old.

 

Addendum:

 

Earlier this evening, I wrote about the memorial for Jim Redding.

I want to share a legend with you. Jim will live with us longer that way.

One night, I think in the early 90's, Jim and friends exited a dance club on Peoria. Jim saw a person abusing a young lady across the way. Just being Jim he hurried over, grabbed the man and threw him aside. While he was helping the young lady up, the man knifed him. Part of his later in life gravel voice came from that knifing. He was in the hospital in serious condition for some days.

The above is fact.

What follows is legend.

Rumor has it his companions that night made a citizen's arrest of the felon. Rumor has it, the police had to take him to the emergency room. Rumor has it he had broken leg.

I don't know the real truth. I was not there.

There is a line in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

 

We all need each other. We all miss someone. We all need support at one time or another.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

One is not gone until they are forgotten. 

 

I read that on a cutout piece of newspaper that was taped to a wall.   

 

Jim sounds to have been a stand up guy.