Bob's Funeral

A little over a week ago my good friend Jeff's dad died. Jeff's mom and my mom are best friends, so Jeff and I have known each other our whole lives. About five years ago his dad, Bob, had a brain tumor. He got it removed, but was in a coma and almost died after the surgery. The last five years have been really hard for the family, as he slowly recovered. In the last year though he had gotten his drivers license again and was even doing a little work, something that the doctors said he would never do again. Last week though he felt sick one day and stayed in bed. He died that afternoon of a heart aneurism and died, something totally unrelated to the tumor. I have been back and forth between Port Orchard and Lynden for the last week.
Last night was the funeral at our church. There were almost 600 people there. They even had video feed going over to the youth building, where there was more seating. The funeral was really good. They started by playing a couple worship songs and Jeff even got up and played bass with them. Jeff also put together a great slide show of pictures of his dad. There was an open mic and some people that were invited up to talk. The sermon was really good. John talked about how God was trying to teach us things through Bob over the last five years. One thing was the importance of a father to teenagers. Bob was able to be here to see his kids through high school (Missy graduates next month). He also talked about their commitment as a family, even through the rough times. He also congratulated Camie, Jeff's mom, for sticking by Bob through the last five years. Everyone started clapping and I couldn't stop crying. Finally John talked about how even Bob had lost his job and status and everything through his handicap, how he was able to model a child like faith to us.
It really was an amazing service. Afterwards there was a reception and we had a bonfire behind the church for the youth to hang out with Jeff and Missy. I am glad that I was able to make it down for it, and my Aunt Marti came with me too. Lindsey Widstrom was at the funeral and stayed at our house last night and we drove here back to SPU on the way back up to Lynden.