This has been a blog post long over due. It's over due because I've only written once since May. It's over due because this is a friend I've been thinking about for a long time. It's overdue, because my hope is that I can share happy reminders of what a good person my friend Tim is with his family. It's also overdue because, in mortality, he won't hear these words.
I'm also using his real name here, because that's just who Tim is. Tim's just a good guy. I only met Tim a few times, but each time we got to talk I learned something a little more about him. Here are five things that I know about Tim. They may be small, but they're what he shared with me.
Tim LOVES trains. As best as I can recollect, Tim has one of the most extensive and complete train sets of anyone I'd ever met. I know he had boxes full of trains and loved to collect them. He talked at length about how he'd collected them from the time he was small and how much his trains meant to him. I think it's really neat to have a hobby and something to collect like that. I think of my own life and I've had a couple of hobbies and collections of small things growing up, but his was truly impressive.
Tim taught me a couple of important things. One of them was really impactful to me in terms of how I respond to what I believe. When I met Tim I was a 19 year old LDS missionary and so most of our conversations centered around all things religious. When talking to us about what we believed about life after death, a subject that he was more interested in than some of the things we talked about, he related a story to myself and my missionary compañero. He told us that every once in a while a set of Jehovah's Witness missionaries would come out to his farm to talk to him. As they told him about what they believed, he pulled out his shotgun, pointed it at them and asked, "Do you fellas believe in Life after death?" He told us that they quickly scampered away. Tim maintained that a person of faith should be willing to die for it. Some people may view him as a little (or a lot) extreme, but that always stuck with me. I don't think Tim would have put them to the test had they stood their ground, but I do think that he held himself to that standard as well.
Tim drove long-haul truck for a long time, and he told us about some of the stories he had from the road. It was him who taught me that semi-trucks will tap their brake lights to other trucks to thank them for letting them pass. The same goes for flashing lights to trucks showing them they have room to pass. Tim also told me that when he would pass those crosses on the sides of highways showing people who had died there, he would offer a prayer for those involved. He would also pray for ambulances, police and firetrucks on their way because they put their lives in danger to help others. Those are things that I've adapted to myself.
Tim offered to make us Squirrel and Dumplings when I lived near them. He said squirrel wasn't in season but he liked it. Tim hunted a lot, but he used all of what he killed and wasn't wasteful. He would probably have been able to make anything be pretty good. Some people are morally opposed to hunting. That's fine. I think that Tim exemplifies what makes hunters good; he has respect for what he killed and he used all of it. Tim wouldn't break the law or abuse his weapons for the thrill of the kill.
Tim was one of those hard core crazy conservatives who was industrious and did things his own way. He probably scared people who didn't share his views, and that's alright with me. He made his own ammo. He owned guns. He was a God fearing man. He raised a good family. It's a family in the ways we all know family to be. Complicated, passionate, but ultimately full of people who can take care of themselves. My mom always told me that her goal in life was for me to turn into a civilized human being. I think Tim and his wonderful wife did a pretty good job of that. He spoke openly about the things he felt, but never felt the need to be needlessly rude. He'd defend what he believed without being vicious. He's the kind of person that I love and who I think makes the world a better place.
I know that compared to others, my feeling here is limited, but I miss Tim. I didn't know him really well. The man lived more than double what I'm at right now, and I only have a couple paragraphs worth of memory about the man, and some of my information may not even be recalled perfectly. I just wanted to take today to remember him. I hope those who remember him every day can take a little comfort in knowing that he impacted others in a great way.
