a year removed

I met Brent's wife a week before meeting him. We had just started to attend the Presbyterian church in town, a church we chose primarily because it was close to our house and because it's webpage had pretty reasonable doctrine. Edie is a gem, she makes everyone feel like a friend right away.

I didn't know that Brent was Edie's husband when we met. My first impression was that he probably was underemployed at some dead-end job (this, it turns out, is not that far off his dream job of working at Dion's pizza restaurant). He was joking around about some topic that has slipped my memory. Actually, there's lots of reasons that I shouldn't have liked him. He drove a suburban alone to work everyday (we live 2 stone throws from their house now, and I ride my bike every day), he was a die hard Cowboys fan (49ers for me), he was a triathlete (road bike racers make fun of their clothes and lack of bike handling skills), and I'm not a fully-reformed-Presbyterian.

But we became fast friends. This was easy because, like us, Brent's family had time to do fun stuff. We went out to lunch together after church a few times. We were particularly impressed with their kids. Somehow they didn't mind so much sitting around listening to grownups talk for an hour or more.

Brent had a real gift of friendship. He loved to joke around and have a great time. He had an uncanny ability to remember details about our lives and asked us about them. He was humble. The last time I saw him, he told me that while carrying Edie down a flight of stairs, he missed a step and dropped her in front of a group of people. He was super embarrassed. He lifted weights so that he'd be strong enough to carry Edie as needed, and also, if you ask me, to look fit.

We learned about Brent's death when we got to church that Sunday. It was a particularly unusual weekend for us. We were watching the 4 young kids of another family from church, and my aunt and uncle were in town for a visit. During the service, the youngest boy didn't want to sit still, so he and I went to the lobby where he wandered around and I grieved.

I had only known Brent for 6 months. It's been easy to find friends in this big world, but great friends are a rare treasure. We no longer have Brent's strong arms to uplift us, but the Lord's arms never fail. I miss my friend.