Harris

Oh my God, why did you take my friend and papa substitute last June? My tears are flowing tonight as I ponder that soon they will sell Harris's farm things. I realized that I've never written about what Harris Kinzler meant to me, as I wasn't blogging then. I can't write much now, as I am needed out in the barn, but I won't have his life and death be lost without saying something about him. So I'll share what his sister-in-law wrote about Harris after his death. I'll share his picture later. Maybe I can find one of he and I together?

Harris W. Kinzler

In honor of his birthday, we turn our thoughts to Harris,

Thanking him for the home he gave, for all the things we have.

We think about the fleeting years, too quickly gone for good.

It seems like only yesterday. We'd go back if we could.

A time when Harris was always there no matter what the weather,

Always strong when things went wrong. He held our lives together.

He strove so hard from day to day and never once complained.

With steady hands he worked the land, and thanked the Lord when it rained.

He taught us that hard work pays off. We reap what we sow.

He said that if we tend our crops, our fields will overflow.

Our harvest has been bountiful. He taught us how to give.

In a firm and steadfast way, He taught us how to live.

Harris's memory dwells among us now, He left us much too soon.

He glides across a golden field, above the harvest moon.

We see him in the fields of grain, He rides upon the wind.

And when our path is beaten down, he picks us up again.

Oh Harris, HOW I MISS YOU! How I wish that I could tell you one more time how much you mean to me. I wish that I could say again, "I love you Harris." I'm trying to be strong for Shirley's sake, but it's just so hard to think about some auctioneer coming to your farm and selling everything that you worked your whole life for. Jacob wants me to buy that old beater green pickup of yours that we bounced around with in the pasture after your death. I don't know if I can do it or not, but I'm going to try because he loved you too!! WE ALL LOVED YOU HARRIS!!!! How can I ever say, "Goodbye" to someone as unforgettable as you? I will always remember your love, especially during my illness, and hopefully I'll be able to love others as easily as you did. I'm remembering now the last Sabbath that we were together and how you put your arm around my shoulder in your fatherly fashion. I remember the smell of your cologne now for it seemed then that it was significant in some way. I never dreamed that I would see you next in Alfred at your funeral. How can I ever go back there without your smile and laugh filling the place with warmth? HOW???????????????????????????????????????? There are no words to express the emptiness that I feel when I think of going to your auction sale on April 1st. I know that life must go on without you, but your abscence has left such a big hole in my life and so many others lives. Shirley is such a special friend but she can't be my adopted papa that you were. The truth is that nobody can. The truth is that life is too short and people hold too many grudges and miss too many opportunities to say, "I love you," and then there are no more chances. The truth is that your efforts to make me a better person would be wasted if I didn't look at everyone that God brings to me each day as a gift. I can just hear you saying, "That includes your parents, Dawn." Yes, I know and, for the sake of our friendship, I will try again.