Skip to main content

Two Years Later

Tuesday marks the 2nd anniversary of the passing of my friend Tim Wright. In a way, I lost him before September 18, 2010, as he was pretty much unconscious the last several weeks. But I did go see him a few days before he died. My friends Bill and Brian played guitar as we sang worship songs, and I held Tim's hand as he lay there. He didn't have the appearance of a man with a brain tumor; if you didn't know any better, you'd think he was just napping.

The next day, September 19, was a Sunday, and my oldest son Jacob was baptized. I loved the timing. Tim did wonderful work in the lives of people during his life, but here, less than 24 hours after his passing, I witnessed the continuation, in the form of Jacob's baptism, of the mark Tim left on the world. I say that because, while I'm not a perfect father, anything good that happens as a result of my parenting can be credited at least partially to Tim's influence on my life. So it was an honor to kick off Phase 2 of the Tim Wright legacy by witnessing Jacob's public proclamation of faith.

Now, two years later, I still feel a sadness when I think of Tim not being a part of my life. I want to sit across a table and rejoice with him about something that's going well in my life. I often want to hear his take on something that's not going so great. I want to hear his latest extremely creative idea. I want to co-teach a class with him again. I am bummed my kids didn't really get to know him. I must have had lunch with him 100 times, but I would love to have a few more.

I don't know if records are kept of such things, but I'm pretty sure Tim and Janice's marriage was the best one ever. Many men left that memorial service half-inspired, half-intimidated by the stories we heard about the kind of husband and father he was.

Although this post is about how saddened I am on this anniversary, the pain his family has endured is surely a hundred times worse. Feel free to pray for them today.

--------------------------------------------

I just went back and re-read what I wrote just after he died. Remembering certain things about his personality, his habits, or just the way he said things, brings a smile to my face, even if it's a sad smile.


Comments

Debbie said…
Well said James! I miss him too!
September 18, 2012 at 8:23 AM
lindafay said…
I feel comfort in believing that he is now part of the great cloud of witnesses rooting us on.

Bryana wrote to Tim in a book of poetry she recently had published.

I think you will understand:

Gate-Greeter

You got there early? Not fair!
but all the better : when we come
by martyred twos and threes, worldworn,
or single ones, new children, young-adopted,
shell-shocked, not sure,
all us tired, barefoot staggering
we’ll know one gate-greeter for sure.
Peter maybe I won’t know
– by sight, not at first
but you, even decked in glory,
we will.

(September 18th, 2010 – in memory of Tim Wright)

September 28, 2012 at 12:18 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saying goodbye to one set of twins, and hello to another

"It's been ten whole years already? Wow! Hard to believe." Many a father will say something like that while shaking his head in disbelief, when his oldest approaches the 10th birthday. It's a milestone, not just for the kid, but for the parents. It's a head-shaker because I am reminded that on that day, 10 years ago, my life changed forever. In some ways, it has passed very quickly.  In other ways, it seems like it's been every bit of ten years. There are two distinct things, though, about the ten-year anniversary of my dadhood. The first is that I became a father of not one, but two little bundles of joy that Tuesday morning. Abby was born at 8:48, followed by her brother Jacob at 8:50. The second is that their birth marked some rare joy in the midst of the darkest day in our nation's history.  As my wife was in labor, a nurse came in and told us that an airplane had crashed into a skyscraper in New York. I turned on the labor room...
6 comments
Read more

Embarrassing video clip--John Cougar

I recently stumbled across some Youtube gold: a live performance by John Mellencamp when he was Johnny Cougar. He appears to be have been about 23, and he's singing "Ain't even Done With The Night", in front of a fairly unresponsive crowd with Bobby Bare (?!) in the front seat. Cougar/Mellencamp is dressed in a nerdy sweater and generally bears no resemblance to the singer as we knew him just 5 years later. He looks a lot more like Potsie from Happy Days than the guy who sang "Pink Houses". Certainly, there is no way to watch this and make a connection to the guy whose song "This is Our Country" beat us to death by overuse in pickup truck commercials. But the real entertainment value from this clip comes from the guys behind Cougar. In hot-pink tuxedos, there are 5 Pips-like backup dancers/singers who don't sing, but clap their hands real well. They essentially spend the entire song performing cheerleader dance routines not unlike those ...
14 comments
Read more

The Two Christmases

As I walked through the front door of the Post Office to make my stamp purchase, I was faced with a choice. On my left was a vending machine, and to my right was the customer service desk, where I could make the purchase from actual human beings. Because there was no line at the moment, I chose the human interaction. I strolled up to the middle-aged, slightly balding postal employee, read that his name was "Rex", and I asked for two books of stamps. As it was mid-December, Rex asked me "would you like Christmas stamps, or...". Once I realized he wasn't about to complete the sentence, I looked down and saw that he was holding some very un-Christmas-like stamps bearing images of the Liberty Bell and the word "Forever." Knowing that my wife had planned to mail several Christmas cards, I told him "One of each." To my surprise, the decision-making did not stop there. Rex hit me with a follow-up: he held up two types of stamps: one had a pi...
Post a Comment
Read more