Parents are not engineered to bury their children. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Dean was only 40 years old. At the age of 9, his mother married me and poor Dean met his new siblings, Michael and Kim. For 31 years they laughed, fought, and most importantly, loved each other as brothers and sisters do. Dean was the red headed stepchild, but we never considered him anything other than a brother, and a son. He ushered at his brothers’ wedding, his sisters’ wedding and, yes, the day his mother married me.
Dean’s life was not always easy. He had, like all of us, his own personal demons. He fought them as best he could. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. But no matter what, he was always first in line if you needed help. If he had something and you needed it, it was yours. I often disapproved of things Dean did; but I never disapproved of the person he was.
Now that he’s gone, social media is full of stories about how great he was and how much he will be missed. I wonder if it would have made a difference if we had all told him how much we loved him while he was still alive. Pretty sure the answer is yes.
Everyone who knew Dean has a story about him. Most of them start with “he was a pretty cool guy”. There are worse ways to be remembered.
Cremation care by the Chas E. Davis Funeral Home with Crematory, Inverness, FL.
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