59 Memories of Kevin

My Friend Kevin

I’ve been pouring over Kevin’s blog that he kept from the day he found out he had pancreatic cancer. I’ve had to read only a few posts at a time, or risk a complete breakdown in tears. It’s still incredibly difficult for me to grasp.

Kevin had a very good friend, Geoff Fox who is a meteorologist for a local TV station, who delivered the eulogy at his funeral. I read it on Geoff's blog. I feel Geoff and I could be/have been good friends, just from how we knew Kevin.

I guess you’d have to have known Kevin, to know why I feel this way. He was a very, very special person.

As I said in my previous post, Kevin and I, and a few other people used to go each year to the Trenton Computer Fest, on the grounds of Trenton State College. It was a long drive, about 4 hours each way, but we always had such a great time talking, wondering what the great deals were going to be, and so on.

One year, we went with a friend that had a very large Mercury Grand Marquis (there were 5 of us total), and just after leaving the computer fair, he had asked if someone else could drive as he was a diabetic and couldn’t see as well at night. Kevin offered to drive and noticed the brakes were kind of spongy, so after getting over the state line into New York, we stopped at a gas station and checked. Seems we somehow blew a brake line, but the intuitive McGuyver in Kevin crimped the offending brake line at the end, and we filled up the brake fluid and slowly limped home. Kevin drove us hundreds of miles, all the way to our cars in Thomaston CT, without ONCE touching the brakes! We were all amazed.. but Kevin pulled it off.

Every time someone in the HAM radio community was putting up a new antenna, or tower, Kevin was the first to offer his help. He climbed towers and trees like a kid (not me, I’m deathly afraid of heights) but he was excellent at this job.
As I mentioned, he was one of my "Elmer's" (people who help you into HAM Radio).

One of the funniest stories I know about Kevin, was when I helped him move from an apartment into his home.

The girls were young, and like all youngsters, their toys were all over the place. When it came time to pack their room, he gave them a time limit and said that anything that remained unpacked at that time would be bagged and given to needy children.

Well, when that time came, there were still toys on the floor, so bagged them we did! The girls cried, and he relented of course.. he was a creampuff of a dad, as he loved his little girls.

Another example, once I was at Kevin’s house, and I can remember him trying to show me something on his Commodore 64 (C-64) and he couldn’t fit the floppy disc (5.25” one) in the drive.

After closer inspection, it seems there was a comb stuffed in there! He called all the girls around and asked who fed the comb to the disk drive, and we could tell who, by the only one that looked at the floor after being asked. Kevin hugged her and explained (more patiently than I would have *LOL*) that we don’t feed combs to disk drives.

Kevin was a very, very lucky man. He had an incredibly wonderful and loving family. His wife Melanee, is as sweet as the day is long, and a wonderful mother. I’m sure Melanee would tell you she was lucky too, and she’d be right. Their love story is right out of a romance novel.

His 4 girls were Kevin’s pride and joy. Every time we spoke, he would update me on them, and you could hear the pride in his voice.

A few days ago, Melanee wrote me an email telling me not to feel badly that I hadn’t spoken to Kevin recently, as Kevin wouldn’t want me to feel that way (even though it’s hard not to).

I told Melanee I was sure of 2 things.

1. The second Kevin passed, he was in heaven. There was no waiting line for him. He was THAT great of a person.
2. That God wanted him, and only him for a very special purpose. One that nobody else could fill. For that reason, God brought him home.

I am absolutely positive of this.

I could tell you more, but I'm choked up as I write this. Maybe at a later date I can post more.

Out of reading Kevin's blog, and talking to his wife... I have come to the conclusion that I'm not going to wait so long to talk to friends. I'm going to try my best to pay forward some of the things he showed me.

Thank you for indulging me, and your very kind comments.
Dave