Last week, Steve lost a good friend. Roy passed away at his home in Iowa after an extremely "courageous" 11-month battle with cancer. Thankfully, Steve was able to spend a few-hours with him on the Sunday afternoon before he passed away. Roy passed away in the early hours of that Tuesday a.m. surrounded by his family and friends.
They became friends when they joined the same fraternity. After they moved out of the house, the two of them and a couple other friends lived together - in a strip of old "aka run down" apartments with basements in the middle of the Greek area that seemed to always have a keg going. Or at least that's my recollection... Needless to say, they've had a lot of great times together.
The unbelievable number of people who paid their respect to Roy and his family during the visitation and vigil service on Thursday night and for his funeral, the procession from the town the funeral was held to his current town, to his home town 1-1/2 hour away (in torrential rain), for his burial, and then for the celebration of his life at a local hall (with a lot of Busch lite drank in his honor -- which also happens to be Steve's favorite beverage) says it all.
Roy made the choice to do one of the bravest and giving things...he was a volunteer firefighter. On both Thursday night and Friday, a great number of fire trucks from around Iowa were there and then followed the procession the entire 1-1/2 hours to his burial. The bag pipes, the tributes, the bells, the firefighter salute, the large flag held up by two neighboring city's fire truck ladders at his home fire station as they transported him from the antique fire truck to the vehicle that took his family and him to his final resting place, the fire trucks with their lights on on the overpasses as we drove through Des Moines, the Rest in Peace message on his home town Pizza Hut's sign, the fireman outfit in front of the Casey's, the large amount of people in the streets paying their respect (as I mentioned in pouring rain) in both his town and his hometown are just a few examples of the profound effect he had on so many people and the respect he had in the communities he lived in.
I write this post not only as a memorial to Steve's long-time friend and his family but also so there will be more people to pray for Rebecca and their two sweet, adorable and young (6 & 2) daughters. And, of course also for his parents, siblings and families.
I did not know him well, but I'm so glad Steve did.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/roybingham
4 months ago
