Sometimes I still have a hard time because I miss him so much.
Today I choose to share with you why so many others do too.
The following was written by my nephew's Father and he read it at the funeral. When someone dies, a lot of times we tend to make the deceased some kind of near-saint. I won't say he never did wrong, we all do, but when others can see all the good the family sees, well, you've got someone real special.
And that he was...
In honoring the life of Mr. Newman, I present Trading Places.
It is with great pride that I stand before you, your family and your friends Mr. Newman and say, “I would love to trade places with you!”
Four years ago I led a group of men in a program called Moral Recognition Therapy. It was a program that challenged us to look deep inside the way we thought. In step 6 of this program there was an activity called trading places. In this activity I was to identify someone I would like to be.
I think all of us have people we admire and look up to. Whether it’s that they have something we would like to have or we think they deal with their problems easily or that they have few problems at all. We believe these people are happy. Sometimes we want to be like these people. Sometimes we would even like to trade places with them!!
When I worked on this activity I chose Mr. Newman to be the person I’d love to trade places with. It was required of me to figure out what it was about him that I liked, that I wanted or that I admired.
I had to choose four of the most important things that influenced me to choose Mr. Newman. There were many such as his looks, the way he dressed, his house, his cars and even the way he honked at you when he rode by.
But those things didn't mean as much to me as the ones that did when I dug down deeper to identify exactly what was about Mr. Newman that made him my choice to be the person I’d love to trade places with.
1) His ability to maintain a positive attitude.
2) His family ties and their strong bond.
3) His caring heart and how he enjoyed helping others.
4) His work ethic and being a working man all his life.
These four things about Mr. Newman, to me, are amazing!!!
When I look at the things that made Mr. Newman the person I would love to trade places with, I realized that these same values mean a lot to me today and are ones that I continue to work on in search of my own happiness.
You talked with a big heart!
You made a path I don’t mind following!
You gave me someone to look up to!
You were a father figure, a role model and a friend in my life!
And because of these things...I couldn't think of a better person that I’d love to trade places with!
Rest In Peace Mr. Newman!!!
Stephen Bottoms 01/27/12
2 comments:
I know it's painful. My father passed away almost twenty years ago. I still miss him and there have been many times over the years when I would have given anything just to talk to him for five minutes.
This was great to read. Your dad was indeed such a wonderful man!
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