Not even an hour after driving home from Florida last Tuesday, my cell phone rang. It was Linda. You know, Steve and Linda the couple that came up here to visit us last May. Steve is Joel's cousin and is more like a brother to Joel than a cousin. They used to joke that they were brothers from another mother.
Linda was really upset and explained that Steve had gotten sick a couple of days earlier and ended up going by ambulance to the hospital. His condition deteriorated quickly and within 24 hours of being hospitalized, he went Home to be with our Lord and Savior. Joel and I were in such a state of shock. It's just hard to believe we won't see him again here on this earth.
And so, today was Steve's funeral. Family and friends gathered at the church where he and Linda have been members for 44 years.....gathered to say their good byes. For us, the memories of all the times we spent with Steve and Linda will be sweet ones.
They were our camping buddies for 20 years. They were the ones that introduced us to "The River" and our camp at Astor in the Ocala National Forest. They watched our kids grow up and get married and have babies of their own. Sometimes we didn't see each other for 6 months or so, and wouldn't you know........if Joel bought a new F-350 truck to tow our latest camper, Steve would grin and taunt Joel that he was going to buy an even bigger truck.
And so it went for years. Each of them sharing the virtues of their latest acquisition.....whether it was a new RV, a different truck, or a boat.......they were always jovially in competition with one another and beating their chests over how cool their newest toy was. One of the funniest jokes between them was competing to see whose RV had the most slides.
For those of you who don't RV, old time campers were just narrow metal boxes. But the new RV's have entire rooms that expand out from either side of the camper, creating a ton more room inside and making the RV more like a moving home away from home. Those moving rooms are called slides as they slide out of the RV once you are parked at a campsite. Well, Stevie would call them "pooch-outs". And the taunting never stopped about whose RV had the most "pooch-outs".
Steve was bigger than life. He loved his RV and being at the river. And he loved his wife, Linda, ever since their college days.
He loved his dogs, especially Higgins the poodle. And taking Joel and I out on his boat riding up and down the St. John's River, in and out of hidden inlets.
When I got my Nikon camera, Steve took me out for a few hours on the river so I could practice getting wildlife shots. We darned near froze that day as the temps dropped and we hadn't brought any warm jackets with us. Our hands were like ice by the time we returned to the dock, but I got over 350 pictures that day. Thanks, buddy, for jump starting my love of photography.
Steve had a stroke a couple of years ago and fought back to regain his speech and to be able to walk about on his own. Joel and I were tickled to pieces when Steve and Linda made the trip to our farm this past May to see us. I can still see Steve sitting out in our pavilion, drinking his cappuccino and soaking in the peace and quiet. He just kept telling us how much he loved being up here and seeing our farm firsthand.
In the Bible, Jesus says he was leaving earth to go and "prepare a place for us". And that place is heaven where the streets are paved with gold and the mansions for His loved ones are beyond anything we can imagine here on earth. I know one thing for sure. Steve is resting right now in a huge, beautiful gold plated RV with more slides than we have ever seen. And grinning from ear to ear. I'll bet he's thinking, "Just wait till Joel sees this one!"
We love you, buddy,
Debbie and Joel
